The Great Game of the past was the strategic rivalry between the British Empire and the Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia .The Russian Empire's expansion into Central Asia threatened to destroy the "jewel in the crown" of the British Empire, India. Their aim at that time was ideology and territorial gain. The Durand Line , which still haunts the Pakistani nation, came into being as a result of that game.
Pakistan has become the shooting gallery in the current episode of the Great Game. The thing that is most horrifying regarding this episode is the number of stakeholders: the US, Great Britain, Israel, India, Iran and Russia.. All the players have a personal specific aim but they converge on one thing : destroy Pakistan , if not then weaken it to the point at which it ceases to operate militarily as a nation. Their motives : strategic ,ideological and control of natural resources .Their strategy: use the Pashtoon , especially the Mehsud (properly pronounced as Maaseed ) psyche to their advantage.
There is tremendous feeling of apprehension, agitation and alienation among the Islam and Pakistan loving common tribesmen of FATA, particularly the Mehsud of South Waziristan Agency living throughout Pakistan and particularly those living in Gomal, Tank, D.I. Khan and Karachi. One feels that the Mehsud tribe is being targeted and dragged into the game as a sacrifice for reasons : the character of the tribe has all the ingredients required to sustain a long drawn struggle of such a game. Nobody seems to own them, therefore, there is no one to argue for them. The analysis and understanding of the genesis of the game is essential before arguing for the Mehsud tribe .
Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State of the US, once said,“ In International politics there are no permanent friends, only the interests are permanent” . Keeping in view the dynamic situation of the ground zero : Pakistan, the allies seems to have changed and then joined hands to destroy Pakistan. Nothing hits one’s mind more than General® Hamid Gul’s words . “ 9/11 the excuse, Afghanistan to use, and Pakistan to remove” . It means that the plan is to eliminate or neutralise Pakistan using Afghanistan on the pretext of the incident of 9/11.
The US always goes for its national interests .She is setting up an imperialist armed ring—stretching from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan—around the Oil, gas and other natural material rich republics. This ring is part of the new ‘Great Game’ for these energy resources. She is joined by various imperialist power and have fallen like a pack of wolves on the carcass of the Soviet Union devouring every fibre of that society.
They utilise their enormous propaganda machine to camouflage their campaigns. The “war against terror”, the war against “greater Serbia”, and so on : all are a part of a single campaign to consolidate the global empire of U.S. imperialism.
In 1998, Carter’s National Security Adviser, Brzezinski, admitted that the US intervened in Afghanistan before the Soviet Union. He said: “The US began aiding the Islamic Fundamentalist Moujahadeen six months before the Russians made their move, even though we believed that this aid was going to induce a soviet military intervention...”. He wrote to President Carter: “we now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war “. A vietnam war was surely given to them : half of the objective achieved. The subsequent turmoil in Afghanistan was a hurdle in the realization of the other half: oil and gas.
“…the main interests of American and other economic elites in making Afghanistan a prime trans-shipment route for the export of Central Asia’s vast oil, gas and other natural resources...like them or not...the Taliban are the players most capable of achieving peace in Afghanistan at this moment in history”. (Wall Streat Journel, 23 May 1997)
In order to create “stability” to capture the lion’s share of the revenue from this new pipeline and to gain “strategic depth” with respect to India, the Pakistani army backed by US imperialism created the Taliban to conquer all of Afghanistan. Benazir Bhutto said: “The Taliban rose up and were embraced by us because we saw them as the ticket to our own economic interests regarding Central Asia.”
In 1996, the Taliban took power in Kabul achieving the first goals of the Pakistani army. Soon after, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, worried by this Pakistani/Taliban influence gave critical support to the Northern Alliance to bog down the Taliban. India was also worried that a complete victory for the Taliban would mean that those forces would now be free to operate in Kashmir. Therefore, India also began to back the Northern Alliance. Iran, which is a Shi’ite country, also became opposed to Taliban on ideological grounds. Owing to these factors, despite many years of fighting, the Taliban were unable to consolidate power over all of Afghanistan .
The life of the troika, the US, Pakistan and Taliban, thus estblished was short. The interests of Pakistan and Taliban on one side and the US on the other diverged. The plans to attack Afghanistan had already matured before September 11th. The attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre, however, created the perfect justification for the U.S. government to intervene in Afghanistan , establish a government of choice, and lay down oil pipelines.
Thus, in October 2001 the most powerful country in the world attacked one of the poorest countries in the world. They installed the government of the Northern Alliance, King Zahir Shah, and Hamid Karzai. The US imperialists did not hesitate to drown the Afghan people in a merciless genocide in order to gain a foothold in Central Asia for oil.
The destabilization of Muslim nuclear Pakistan has been on the minds of US officials for some time. The Afghan government is simply the instrument of the US , so when an Afghan official speaks it’s the US that speaks. the Afghan ambassador to Norway, Jawed Ludin wrote an article ,Take this war into Pakistan, in the Guardian of Aug 27, 2008. Ludin says: "Without having to invade Pakistani territory, [a] coalition [of US, Afghan and Pakistani military forces] should establish a viable presence by opening military bases on Pakistani soil. A supreme commander, with deputies from Afghanistan and Pakistan, should be appointed to devise and implement an effective counter-terrorism strategy on both sides of the Durand Line… The coalition should also ensure the security of Pakistan's dangerous nuclear arsenal…the US must recognise the utter futility of working with the Pakistani military", which he suggest is untrustworthy and unfit to protect Pakistan's interests.
Events in Waziristan, in the Khyber Agency and in Swat all suggest that the central authorities of Pakistan have indeed relinquished control of these border areas. Balochistan is also in a state of turmoil that makes it impossible for the central authority of the Pakistan government and army to govern there. Much of this is the result of sixty years of gross incompetence and nepotism in the central government and in the army, but it has created an environment easily exploited by Pakistan's enemies.
Israel , with the aid of its lobby in the US, want to maintain its military dominance in the region, Israel has for years set about destabilising any Muslim country that poses a threat to its dominance.
Pakistan is the only Muslim country with nuclear weapons and Israel is within range. So Pakistan must be weakened to the point at which it ceases to operate militarily as a nation.
Pakistan is supposed to be the west's foremost ally in the fight against Islamic militancy, so Israel cannot attack Pakistan directly. Israel seems to have opted to train and send into the border regions of Pakistan gangs of thugs willing to commit atrocities that will then be blamed on so called barbaric Muslim militants. Well informed sources have revealed that the Israelis are training teams in Badakshan and are sending them into Pakistan's border regions to commit atrocities. Rumours of Israeli-trained provocateurs amongst the tribesmen in the Khyber Agency and in Swat are rife The aim of the game is to suggest to the World that Pakistan has lost control of its territory to dangerous extremists and so may lose control of its nuclear weapons. Objective: create an environment where the World would ask and force Pakistan to give up its nuclear and missile weapons and technology.
With India, its an open diary, the clash is based on historical, cultural and religious differences. Three wars have not done enough for both sides, and the ever looming danger is still there.
Russia, which under the charismatic leadership of Vladmir Putin and intoxicated with newly found petro dollars, found a perfect playing field. They never forgot Pakistan’s entry to SEATO & CENTO, neither the incident of U2 flight. But above all, the Russians always felt that it was Pakistan rather than any other state, which during Afghan invasion(1979-88) lead to their collapse. A former KGB officer once said: “ We will doom the real power(US) for this defeat, at the exact place which paved the way for this defeat( Pakistan)” .
For the players outside, the nuclear Pakistan matters, its unity matters and in reality its existence matters. The game is on! What about the player inside, the Pakistani establishment and the Pakistani Taliban? The one with the banner of Pakistan is alienating its people, Pashtoons, from Pakistan and the other with the slogan of Islam is alienating its fellow Muslims from Islam.
The British, the primary ancestor of the US and its co-partner in the war against terror, discovered the progressive and at times self-destructive traits of resoluteness, stubbornness and revengefulness of the Pashtoons, especially, the Maaseed tribe during their interaction with them when they ruled the subcontinent. It seems that the imperialists have chosen FATA, especially South Waziristan, for their campaign for the reason of the character of the tribe : a prerequisite for such a game .
What is happening in the tribal areas is not in Pakistan's national interests. The venom which has been forced into the tribal Pashtoon’s soul is counterproductive for Pakistan in the long run. The tribesmen acceded to Pakistan out of their free will. They were not conquered by the Pakistan Army. As a matter of fact no army including the Mughal, Sikh or British ever succeeded in conquering them. The tribal areas were occupied, overrun but never conquered.
Maaseed of South Waziristan are among the very few communities of Pakistan who have never risen against the state . Maaseed tribe’s love for Islam and Pakistan is unquestionable. The history and the ratio of the tribe in the security forces of Pakistan bear a testimony to the fact.
The Maaseed are proud, patriotic, religious(though not bigot) and independent people. There is tremendous feeling of apprehension, agitation and alienation among the common Maaseeds living throughout Pakistan and particularly those living in Tank, D.I. Khan and Karachi. They are afraid (from all involved) for their lives, honour, independence and wealth. Some are whipping them for their love for Islam; others for their love for Pakistan and some others are thrashing them for their progressive nature and wealth that they have got by sheer hard work.
The game is on between the Pakistani establishment and those who are bent on destroying the Islamic Pakistan . Nation building require sacrifice and great nations have won glory due to the sacrifice of its people. Pashtoons and especially the Maaseeds have been and still are ready to sacrifice every thing that they have for the glory of the nation. Some among them would say that in the name of sacrifice the Pashtoon blood is sold only to spent the ‘dollars’ on the areas and interests of those other than Pashtoons.
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