Pakistan, Terrorism, Middle East, Politics and Soap Operas: and you thought British Politics had drama

In the last four days, in Afganistan and Pakistan, there have been roughly 152 deaths. That is 38 people a day. 38 people a day, have their families left all alone; have their heads blown off; have their organs destroyed by 'dum-dum' AK bullets; have their dreams destroyed. 

8 in Afganistan on 30th of March, 24 militants in NW Pakistan on 28th of March, atleast 50 (possibly 70) in a mosque attack in Pakistan, at least 10 in a Pakistani restaurant; and finally, possibly 40 future policemen, eradicated, in Pakistan.

"I saw how they were dressed. They were wearing shalwar kameez,
public dress. But one was in a blue track suit and another other was in
a white shalwar kameez. They looked no different from the public.

Their hair was like the hair of a youngster with a short hair cut. They
looked young and in good health to me. I would say that they looked
Punjabi to me." BBC

Some of us might still remember the recent Mumbai attacks. The uncaring, well-trained youngsters, who walked around in one of the largest cities in India, killing people to the right and to the left. Bunkered down in various cultural icons, around the city, they continued to hold out and slaughter. The attack lasted around 15 hours, with the deaths of more than 200 people.

The following political confusion and turmoil had the majority of the world shifting in their seats - it was a crisis between two nuke-equipped countries. Suddenly, Pakistan was important. Personally, I did not even know 'who, what and where' specifically. And when it became important, everybody realised how wrong everything had gone. 

It is well-known, that the North-West region of Pakistan is a safe-haven for the hunted Taleban, Al-Qaida, LeT et al. Furthermore, even Pakistan's own security and intelligence force - the ISI - is known to have used them to create havoc in India. Unfortunately, that is the scariest part of it all. 

The recent attack on the police training facility in Pakistan is a brutal display of the willingness of such feared groups. Before 9/11, most people had only heard the word terror and terrorism in movies. To me, the concept is still rather unimaginable. However, what I've realised, is that terrorism is a concept based on political and ideological motivation. It is not a "people's fight". It is a war against ghosts, boogiemonsters and deals behind the screen. 

The glaring mistake of current ruling oligarchs of Pakistan, is their fear of actually doing something - things might go wrong, 'I will lose votes', 'I will reveal my own war-mongering tools', etc. The widower of Bhutto, the current Pakistani president, is a president involved with internal disputes and rivalry more than he is involved with saving the country, or for that matter, the world.

He is not a president, who is willing to take action. The understanding that such political lack of action has created, is one of a low-quality soap opera. Politicians are not taken seriously - of course, when have they ever? - but the Pakistani president could not understand an attack on its own country and sovereignity, if it butted him with its AK47.

It took 90 minutes, for the special forces to get to the scene of the recent attack. If such a blatant attack happened anywhere in Europe, Russia or US, there would be a force of unimaginable size trying to eliminate such threat. There would be amazing speeches about defending freedom, democracy, rights, morality and everything that's good in this world. The Pakistani government must be so embarrassed by this time - they're not even openly talking about these events. Politicians dont know what to say anymore. When has anyone seen a politician without an excuse?

The attack on the police training compound was loosely based on the same tactics, as the Mumbai attack. And, as the Mumbai attack, this is another propaganda and ideological victory for the ghosts. In addition to suicide attacks on police stations and government buildings, the power of such coordinated precision attacks is why we're losing the... War. If you can actually call it that way, in the first place.

There is no country so far, which has actually been won over by terrorism - as we know it today. The only country, that has come close to it, was Afganistan in the times of counter-insurgency to Soviets. But remember, at that time, it was not called terrorism! What is going to happen, when something so despicable in the current society will become reality, will win against our hero-mentality (in theory, it already has happened to several countries, but currently, nobody's actually accepting it)? 

Afganistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Iran and Syria - not UK, EU, US - is where the attention will and should be. No military or forceful approach - it will not prevail - not for us or for 'them'. What needs to be understood, is the size of the propaganda capabilities, when Pakistan falls. This 'war', is an ideological battle. And losing a quarter of your country to powers, that you cant control, is something that I would call a fail.

To make things worse, the performance of political ties has grown stronger and stronger; for example the recent 'warming up' of relations between some of the S-Asian countries:

"For the Syrians, the turnabout is proof that their ties with Iran are
in fact useful, and accord them an indispensable role as a regional
broker. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries “have great stakes in
maintaining good relations between Syria and Iran, because at difficult
times they will find Syria helping them,” said Faisal Mekdad, Syria’s
vice minister of foreign affairs." Yourish.com

Naturally, political artistry again comes into play. And it's not only Syria (GLORIA - Barry Rubin), which performs it so well. Israel has done it to an amazing level for the last 60 years; Palestine is a practised master in being the David of the fight, the underdog, even when it is a rotten apple aswell (GLORIA - Barry Rubin); Afganistan's new-age powerplays are starting to gain momentum, with US wanting to prop up a strong (obedient) PM; Sri Lanka started to disregard all international requests and amazingly wide usage of the word 'terrorist'; China not being such a friendly partner and a communist symbol than expected (Scribd); and more. 

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said that accounts of widespread
corruption within his government are exaggerated and politically
motivated." BBC

There is not much time, until something happens. Of course, US would not actually let Pakistani nuclear weapons to go into the hands of - what they call - extremists; Iran is a trigger-happy grumpy child, who wants to be acknowledged - and with nuclears he will be (GLORIA - Barry Rubin); Sri Lanka has finally got its power nice and concentrated, and whats to keep it that way.

Who knows, maybe CIA and their shrouded tactics will come into play: force, politics, intelligence, spying - all that we've seen in the movies and heard theories about. But the question remains: how much will things have to worsen, for there something actually happen? How long can we push the ridiculous drama? We are living in a historic age, without us even knowing it. We learn history and think the Cuba missile crisis was bad - what about now?

"If it keeps on rainin, levees goin to break,
When the levee breaks Ill have no place to stay.
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,

...

Now, cryin wont help you, prayin wont do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.
All last night sat on the levee and moaned,"

Led Zeppelin - When the Levee Breaks