The Undeclared War on Pakistan

Friday, 05 September 2008

On September 3, the US military sent a force of commandos across the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan on a raid in which 20 innocent civilians were reportedly killed, including women and children. The attack took place in Angoor Adda, the last Pakistani town near the Afghan border in the South Waziristan area. An eyewitness reported, “Later, I saw 15 bodies inside and outside two homes. They had been shot in the head”. He said the dead included women and children and that all were civilians. Other local residents said that the attack involved both American and Afghan troops backed by helicopter gunships. The attack was the latest in a series of attacks across the Pakistani border from Afghanistan. Similar strikes were carried out on February 28, by foreign forces in which they launched three missiles in South Waziristan. In this attack 13 innocent residents were killed and 11 sustained critical injuries. On March 12, US led forces again launched a guided missile in Waziristan on a compound in which two Pakistani women and two children were killed instantly. The US in the past has used unmanned Predator drones to attack inside FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas). On June 10, US led forces along the Afghan border launched an air strike on a Frontier Corps at Sheikh Baba border post in the mountainous Gora Prai region in Mohmand Agency. 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops including one major, 10 civilian killed and several injured. The incident took place inside Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan. The US Pentagon subsequently confirmed that coordinated artillery and air strikes were carried out. On June 14, 2008 US Drone again hit Maceen village located in South Waziristan killing one. This most recent attack was clearly an escalation and was described by intelligence analysts Stratfor as “the most overt full-scale U.S. raid on targets within Pakistan”.

The escalation of attacks pain a picture of what is clearly a changing message from the US administration. On April 12, this year, American President Bush said that Pakistan, and not Afghanistan or Iraq, is now a most likely place “where a plot to carry out any 9/11 type attack in the US” could be concocted. This was echoed by arch neo-conservative Bill Kristal, in early July, when he reported that President Bush “conveyed the following impression that he thought the next president’s biggest challenge would not be Iraq, which he thinks he’ll leave in pretty good shape, and would not be Afghanistan, which is manageable by itself... It is Pakistan.” We have “a sort of friendly government that sort of cooperates and sort of doesn’t. It's really a complicated and difficult situation.” This was followed up shortly when presidential candidate Barack Obama took the baton from Bush in his speech on July 15, in which he argued that more focus and resource were required on both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

While these incidents have been presented as “fighting the militants”, the fact is that American led forces have been projecting air power to bomb targets, they continue to use artillery and they have conducted special forces operations in Pakistan. As noted, they have made deeper and more daring expeditions in to Pakistan where they have not only killed “militants” but have engaged the Frontier Corps and the Pakistan Army. It was reported in the Washington Post in April that Captain Chris Hammond said that “a greater frustration is that they cannot trust their Pakistani counterparts. The Pakistan military is corrupt and lets people come through.” It was also reported that a U.S. soldier who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons said Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, which mans several border checkpoints, is viewed as nearly an enemy force. “The Frontier Corps might as well be Taliban… They are active facilitators of infiltration”. When viewed from this perspective it is hard to reach a conclusion other than the fact that America is already fighting an undeclared war with Pakistan on its border with Afghanistan.

While it is true that there has been no attempt to occupy territory in Pakistan it is also true to say that the US administration has indicated a need to escalate the number of forces deployed on the border, a necessary prerequisite to a major escalation of the engagement with Pakistan. Another prerequisite would be to broaden the justification for the engagement which was cited in a recent report by RAND Corporation entitled “Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan” funded by the US DOD. The report did not confine criticism to the FATA but stated that the insurgency also found refuge in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) as well as the province of Balochistan so extending the area for future retaliation substantially. In June this year Islamabad’s newly appointed ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, said that U.S. leaders have told his government that if the United States suffers an attack that is traced back to Pakistan, Washington will have to take steps to retaliate.

Following the June 10 attack, Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani condemned the deaths, telling parliament: “We will take a stand for the sake of this country’s sovereignty, for the sake of its dignity and self-respect”. He further revealed that “We do not allow our territory to be used. The Foreign office then called US ambassador Anne Patterson to the office and handed over the strong protest against the coalition forces attack. The response to the most recent attack has been equally pathetic. Perhaps the real indication of the extent to which IS administration considers the Pakistani government is indicated by the fact that the very same day that the Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani landed in Washington, America launched lethal strikes on South Waziristan and killed innocent victims.

The Pakistani government has shown an utter lack of leadership and is completely compliant to the US plan and has given the green light to the invasion of Pakistani sovereignty. Silenced, it seems, by the burden of the funding agreed in Washington and perhaps the opportunity to line their pockets for the next ten years. The democrats have been absorbed by the intrigue in Islamabad. The complacency over the territorial integrity of Pakistan is astounding. Rather than preparing for the defence of Pakistan against a clearly belligerent army, the Pakistani government and army are pursuing policies which are placing huge pressure on the federation that is currently Pakistan.

If the Pakistani government was indeed serious in addressing the murder of innocents by US led forces it could take the measure of closing access to the Karachi port which currently provides Washington a supply route for its troops in Afghanistan. It would cease all domestic attacks in pursuit of an US war and it would deploy the army along the border to ensure that there were no further “expeditions”.

Despite the sheer absence of courage and leadership, the sentiment of one of the residents of Angoor Adda show that while the leadership in Pakistan is weak the people are not. He commented, “There was darkness at the time when the Americans came and killed our innocent people. We would have not allowed them to go back alive if they had come to our village in daylight.”

Clearly the democrats in Pakistan are as compliant with US plans, just as Musharraf was before them. The only path is for the Pakistani people to reject failed democratic or dictatorial politics, which sell the sovereignty to foreign powers. The only viable solution for Pakistan’s predicament is to adopt the new transnational politics of unity, implemented by the Khilafah, which would address Pakistan’s problems as part of the Ummah. Working with Hizb ut-Tahrir to re-establish the Khilafah will make Pakistan truly independent, ensure accountability and representation and provide real solutions to problems that democratic and dictatorial politics have failed to solve over the past half century.