“Coup on Coup”
Pakistani Minister Nawaz Sharif, Once Overthrown by a Military/ISI Coup in 1999, Will be Overthrown by another Military Coup/ISI in 2014!
As the Bobby Vinton lyrics of “Blue On Blue” describe the pains and aches of “heartaches on heartaches”, I could not help but think of the current PM of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif. He is an arrogant immature politician, who had already been thrown out of office by General/PM Musharaff [now in prison], and will be overthrown, once again, by the same ISI/Pakistani military forces for a second time this year.
Here we see the core political psychological principle of ‘repetition compulsion’ based on psychoanalytical theory working in broad day light. In other words, the national character of a country, like the personality profile of an individual, compels that country to repeat its inherent dynamics---political, economic and strategic –despite all of its internal constraints, especially in what is considered a ‘failed state’. Just like our blogs had predicted the “Beacoup de Coups in Thailand” because of the inherent weakness of the Royal family and the basically corrupt, undeveloped nature of the civil institutions in Thailand. Now that same situation has arisen in Pakistan, once again.
I believe it was several months ago, we discussed that after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the arrest of popular General Pervez Musharraf who overthrew the present Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that the Inter Service Intelligence Unit of the Pakistani Army would attempt a military coup against Sharif. This is due to the arrest of one of their own (Musharraf) as well as the inability for Sharif to rule an Islamic ‘failed state’—Pakistan.
A recent inconspicuous article in the Monday May 26, 2014, International Edition of the NYTimes entitled, ”Press Battle In Pakistan Feeds Into Larger Conflict: Government Vs. Military”, by Declan Walsh, highlights some of the salient points as to why I believe will be imminent military coup:
[1] “Mr Sharif has already clashed with army chief, General Raheel Sharif, on several issues, including Taliban Peace Talks and the fate of General Pervez Musharaf, the former military leader currently facing TREASON TRIAL.” [my emphasis].
[2] Secular insults to Islam like the following are major catalysts for the ISI/Military to intervene in order to preserve the Fundamental Nature of Pakistan as a conservative Islamic State:
“In the past weeks, Geo’s [secular TV station] opponents have focused their efforts on the blasphemy charges …popular actress [on Geo] Veena Malik, re-enacted her marriage ceremony as a religious hymn … Ms Malik is known for publicity stunts that have outraged conservatives, like appearing topless on the cover of an Indian Magazine with the letters… “ISI” tatood on her arm……disrespected the family of the prophet Muhammad.”
[3] “The internecine news media strife …. ‘destroying any semblance of a FREE and RESPONSIBLE PAKISTANI MEDIA..” [my emphasis].
[4] “When Nawaz was elected last year, people said he was a changed man, wiser and more mature….. BUT WHEN THE CRUNCH COMES , HE’S STILL THE SAME MAN.” [my emphasis].
Plus ca change, moins ca change! More change happens, less real change has happened! Old French proverb.
So what does this mean for America?
Basically, Pakistan’s return to military rule means that all the verbiage and kabuki orchestrated by our past incompetent POTUSs was for naught. It means that you and I will still pay a very healthy tax bill to supply military weapons to the Pakistani Army in order to convince ourselves that they might ally their interests with our own national security interests. Yet that has never been the case nor will it ever happen.
Why?
Thanks to our indomitable CIA that really never works on strategic concepts but only ‘cash and carry’ tactics. Take the the ill conceived or faux raid on OSAMA BIN LADEN where our MILITARY and CIA went out of their way to completely humiliate the Pakistani army and the ISI which they created! No country or military likes to be humiliated by any narrative - real or fictitious.
Thanks to our indomitable CIA that really never works on strategic concepts but only ‘cash and carry’ tactics. Take the the ill conceived or faux raid on OSAMA BIN LADEN where our MILITARY and CIA went out of their way to completely humiliate the Pakistani army and the ISI which they created! No country or military likes to be humiliated by any narrative - real or fictitious.
Remember: that when the OSBL Raid ostensibly occurred, it was located only a few hundred meters from the Pakistani “West Point” Military Academy. In effect, our SEAL TEAM/CIA, or whoever initiated the raid into Pakistan, had created a serious “blowback” against the Pakistani Army [intolerable humiliation]; and initiated the eventual chaos that would ensue between the ISI/Military and the subsequent civilian governments.
Sound familiar?
Americans have to begin to understand that our particular form of democracy is not suited for most countries around the world. The reason for the absence of democracy in other countries has nothing to do with us. Most countries have their own NATIONAL CHARACTER. They have their own rituals, needs, institutions and religions which have absolutely no correspondence to what we in the west consider an ‘enlightened society’. Pakistan was a country created by the British in the last 1940’s in an attempt to provide a SAFE HAVEN for muslims who had been persecuted by Hindu Indians.
Pakistan in the 1970’s had an internal civil war between East and Western Pakistan in which hundreds of thousands of innocent refugees died. As a result of this horrible war the state of BANGLADESH was created. Again, another ‘failed state’. History has its own circle of violence and counter violence bred from ethnic, religious, and economic strife. There is very little that we, as a country, can do or should do. In the world of interventions, the most important intervention Americans can make is to not intervene!
Contrary to those neocons and other chicken hawks who have sent us to unnecessary wars, Americans are not isolationists or even remiss if we make our own country our primary concern. Patriots: Make prioritize our own nation’s educational system and economic systems (jobs).
Contrary to those neocons and other chicken hawks who have sent us to unnecessary wars, Americans are not isolationists or even remiss if we make our own country our primary concern. Patriots: Make prioritize our own nation’s educational system and economic systems (jobs).
btw: When Gen Musharraf was in power, he admired one theological/military country more than any other, can you guess???? Hint: It’s a JEWISH state!!
bingo: Musharraf wanted to officially recognize Israel as a JEWISH STATE and have official diplomatic relations with Israel. He admired the fact that Israel was created by Jews for Jews and had a formidable military presence in the Middle East.
bingo: Musharraf wanted to officially recognize Israel as a JEWISH STATE and have official diplomatic relations with Israel. He admired the fact that Israel was created by Jews for Jews and had a formidable military presence in the Middle East.
Ironic, perhaps….maybe counter-intuitive.
Wasn't it supposed to be ISI Chief Ahmed that had the $100,000 wired to Atta and then went on to have ' brekky' with senior US folk on the morning of 9/11. Secondly didn't the great philosopher Don Mclean on 'Prime Time' say something like ' we had to burn the city because it would not agree that things go better with democracy' .
ReplyDeleteVeena Malik is a hero. She's the true face of feminism in that dreadful place. She's gorgeous and she knows it.
DeleteFrom India is of course Sunny Leone, who does porn as well as non-porn, but she doesn't have Veena's personality. Sunny is gorgeous but alas not every gorgeous woman has a personality like Veena.
Personalities like Veena and her counterparts in cities in Iran dancing and so forth are going to be NEW WAVE of change that turns the evils of sanctimonious false piety and suppression upside down.
Yes with freedom comes decadance because few people can handle freedom but that's human nature.
The cure to decadance is worse than the desease!
As Dr.P's Russian friends told him in the 1970s, "You Americans with your Disneyland are soooooo childish and weak!"
Yeah freedom brings decadance among the weaklings among us who go to "X-Men" movies and "Batman" films, but that's not the whole population. The minority of people with above-average IQs utilize their freedom to build a civilization.
I am familiar with repetition syndrom because I used to suffer from it, although not as a compulsion, but just as a behavior trait.
ReplyDeleteTo myself I had a motivation to revisit a very dangerous situation in an effort to seek to de-fuse it. By seeking out dangerous situations resembling a prior traumatic event I was seeking to re-experience the original event but to somehow experience it in a way in which it could somehow be made to be benign rather than the trauma which it invoked.
It is not a compulsion but a strong motivator. If you've had a very violent trauma that causes you suffering than you want to take away it's traumatic character by somehow conquering it by doing it again but this time without the trauma.
It's a strange but logical emotion.
I am skeptical however that it applies to the situation in Pakistan although perhaps it may.
At the core is the with or belief that the trauma is only a emotion, and that if you can do the same thing again you can do it without the emotion which harmed you.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually very reasonable.
I meant to say "wish," not "with"
ReplyDelete"Deerhunter"....script by Michael Cimino.
DeleteHow he understood this I will never know but he nailed it.
Chris Walkin was like a robot. He didn't feel anything.
DeleteFor that matter see Paul Schrader's "Rolling Thunder" with William DeVane. Very similar and takes place in San Antonio and Del Rio.
DeleteSchrader and Carmack McCarthy somehow found out about Del Rio and San Antonio......
DeleteI wish a serious filmmaker had made "No Country" though instead of the farce the Cohn brothers did.
DeleteBut the story is very flawed....the Sugur character is all wrong.
He really didn't understand the meliu at all.
Cimino hired a writer for Deerhunter but he fucked it up so Cimino had to throw away everything the "writer" had done and start from scratch and do it all himself.
DeleteJust goes to show you if you want anything in this world not mediocre you have to roll up your sleeves and do the hard labor your own self.
Hired help doesn't give a damn.
THE MURDER OF JOHN WHEELER....
ReplyDeleteWhat ever happened to that case?
Does anyone know?
Who would be so arrogant as to knock off someone as reputable at he?
For that matter who murdered CIA figure Roland Carnaby in Houston? That was about the same time and Youtube has his execution by Houston city police on the side of the road, but is that all there was to it?
I didn't do a good job of explaining repetition syndrome.
ReplyDeleteLook at it this way.....
If there's something that makes you afraid you know you need to remove that source of fear. You know that as long as that source of fear exists you have a threat to your well being.
To eliminate that threat you feel that you can de-sensitize yourself to it. If you become acquainted with it you can become de-sensitized and the fear and source of threat will go away.
So you become facinated with it, and seek it out. You don't embrace it like Stockholm Syndrome. It's completely different than that. You never admire it or become part of it. You just understand it and experience it without fear, or at least that's your wish. That's what you're seeking to do.
Everyone should see the Youtube film, "Shell Shock" about the psychiatric cognative therapy treatment of shell shock/hysteria victims in the war.
ReplyDeleteShell shock or other forms of hysteria and conversion disorder are not repetition syndrome at all, but the same kind of trauma as a source of fear and anxiety which prevents well being is present.
The shell shock patients didn't have one event in the past which tormented them, but a chronic, long experience with no end.....
Their reaction was to shut down their body in some way to paralyize them so they wouldn't experience it anymore or as an irrational stress reaction - one or the other as I think both were working for different individuals.
Anyway the cognative therapy worked so well that it bolstered the psychoanalytic model greatly - which posits that neurosis or even psychosis results from buried traumas which can be relieved with a cathartic discussion allowing the patient to get past the trauma by re-experiencing it in a manner where he will not be harmed by it any longer, thereby breaking the mind's fixation on it as a threat response because it's not really there any more.......
Anyway the whole subject is important because I think today psychological models try to deny that the mind has unconscious areas at all, or that dreams have any relation to it, or that the mind can cause the body to do things the conscious mind can't.
My physics professor told me when I was an undergraduate at UT that "hypnosis doesn't exist" and that "there's no such thing as an altered state of consciousness" and a psychiatrist professor I know in Italy recently told me that "multiple personality disorder is a fakery of the patient because we know they learned it from their mothers and are doing it to please others..........................."
What a load of crap.
I'm glad that psychiatry now has effective chemical medications to to relieve some of the symptoms of psychosis or even neurosis.
ReplyDeleteBut using such medications doesn't help you understand the structure of the mind which produced the disorder.
If you change the brain chemistry so that the symptoms are reduced that's a good clinical outcome.
But you lose the opportunity to document an abnormal behavior which can inform you about the structure of the mind.
When there were no such medications there had to, by necessity, be a focus on refining an accurate cognative model.
Now that that's gone they can get away with models based on comforting ideas that the mind is all encompassed in the brain, and the brain is a mechanistic organ which functions like a liver or kidney, like a Skinner model of behavior which was shown to be total nonesense in the 1950s but which can be thrown out again because it makes the acedemics feel they can understand the world as a simple chemical physical place.
How sad.
Speaking of Repetition Compulsion
ReplyDeletehttp://usnvrepcan.blogspot.com/2014/05/votes-for-indefinite-detention-and-worse.html
I had the opportunity to revisit a childhood trauma and literally "get back up on a horse again". I was 7 years of age when my parents, at my late mother's request, decided to go on an organized trail ride by horseback in Yosemite. My late mother was a small Italian lady who was a very accomplished horseback rider. She had moved to Hollywood, after her divorce to my father, seeking a career as a model/actress and landed a job as a Studio executive secretary where she befriended Tom Mix, the early Western movie genre star. I am sure this is where her avid riding skills came together.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, I had not shared the same experience, and at 7 years of age, I don't think I could have weighed 60 lbs soaking wet, I'm guessing. This compared with a 1200 or so pound horse named "Thunder" led to an interesting encounter, culminating in a wild ride on the side of a mountain with a terrifying drop off to one side, if the horse wasn't careful while galloping along, and without being under any of my control. Needless to say I must have felt like a feather on the back of Thunder, could barely wrap my legs around the saddle, and didn't have the developed upper body strength to pull in the reigns to make the horse pay any attention to my commands to "Whoahhh!". And when Thunder finally settled down, along with my racing heart and adrenaline rush, we arrived at another obstacle that Thunder demonstrated his great disdain towards, namely a river crossing. So as the last one in the pack, I figured there must be some equivalent of human "peer pressure" that a horse could be influenced by, namely all of the rest of the horses he was familiar with, crossed the river no problem.
However, based upon his actions, I think Thunder was saying "Fuck this " and proceeds to stand on the bank of the river and pulls a unexpected Roy Rogers Trigger move and stands on his hind legs with his front two legs in the air.
At 7 that scared the shit out of me, but I held on for dear life, until Thunder decided he scared me enough and got back on all fours and was led across the river by the Trail master holding his reigns.
I had recurring dreams about Yosemite for years throughout my childhood.
ReplyDeleteOddly I was also very intimidated by the overpowering heights of the mountains that dwarfed my small stature. And in my mind for years those tall cliffs were turned into oceanic tidal waves, chasing me, in my dreams, that I would always wake up terrified to, because of the belief that I could never out swim or out run them. I would always wake up right before they were to crash over me. It was most terrifying to me, but soon relieved, when I woke up and realized it was merely a dream.
Needless to say, I felt compelled to go back to Yosemite, to re-live my horseback riding experience. But this time, I was no longer a weak, 7 year old, but a young man who felt smart enough, even if not sure if I was strong enough to "handle a horse".
So off I went down the same trail, but years later with a different horse. No more Thunder, but nonetheless a big enough animal to serve the purpose of being Thunder's substitute for the day. And as my luck would have it, this horse had a real attitude. Every couple hundred yards of riding, and it would turn its head around and bite me on the right shin.
Now I love animals, but I thought, "hell no", this is not going to be another nightmare ride. But wasn't sure what to do about this, until the horse bit me again, and it hurt like a Mother flower! So I decided then and there, if he tries that for a 3rd time, I will swiftly, and decisively kick him right in the mouth.
I wasn't really sure what that would do, but I figured that would discourage me from turning around and biting if the roles were reversed, so I figured what do I have to lose but a little dignity? Sure enough a few 100 yards down the trail he turns, lifts his upper lip exposing those big front teeth and goes in for the bite, and like Foreman moving into Muhammad Ali's range, wham, I let him have it right in the kisser. And I'll be ding danged, don't you know that was the last time the horse turned to try to bite me. Lol,
I had succeeded, at least in my mind in reliving my trauma, and conquering my fear of Yosemite and its damn horses!
Now admittedly, I am not an avid horseback rider. In fact I have learned to ask for "Pinky" at the local stables if I want an uneventful horseback ride, lol. Pinky's back is sorta "U" shaped and she is way past her prime. And the only time Pinky shows any sort of "friskiness" is when the trail leads back to her stable where her dinner awaits.
I had no more terrifying dreams of 150 foot waves crashing over me as I frantically try to get clear of them. And the closest thing I get to horseback riding now, is going to visit the Gene Autry Museum on occasion. I feel no need to play the role of Black Bart and cross rivers on horseback, but am very satisfied with the results of my amateur psychology experiment.
Anyway as Roy Rogers once sang.... Happy Trails To You Until We Meet Again !
Most people are motivated in everything they do by fear without being aware of it. Pretty much every choice they make in every situation about every little matter is based on their fear. Avoiding dangers which are highly improbable, avoiding stress from unfamiliar situations, etc. is what drives almost all people all the time.
ReplyDeleteA person who exaggerates dangers and moves always out of fear and has no courage is that way because they don't believe in anything...they have no convictions. They have no particular desire for the world to be anything but unfair and capricious all the time, and they have no faith that being virtuous will yield a happy outcome.
Life is a jungle, and there's a difference between some people who act so as to make their presence in it a benevolent one, and all those other people, about 90% of all people, who see no particular reason to do anything other than live like a beast running and flinching at every unfamiliar thing.
The simple truth is that life isn't unfair.
ReplyDeleteLook to all those cynics whose every thought is how to avoid risk to themselves and see what happens.
They are the ones who always end up with cancer or some other thing which strikes them down like a lightening bolt from heaven while the optumists go on to live long lives.
Studies have shown that cynical people contract cancer and other life-ending deseases at a much higher rate than optumists.
I don't understand. If nobody killed OBL in the raid in Pakistan, because he was already dead by december 2001, How could had been a raid in Pakistan at all? Who did they killed? Why some "soldiers" died there?
ReplyDelete