Picture this: You’re a teenage boy living somewhere in South Waziristan, Pakistan. You hear about a charismatic man and his entourage that recently moved into your town of about five hundred people. You know he carries guns. Still, you go about your chores not suspecting anything unusual. After all, most people that pass through your town are packing at least some heat. That night, you lay down on the dirt floor and crawl under your covers.
An ear-splitting bang wakes you. It’s so unreal that you think you’re dreaming until pieces of your ceiling fall right on your legs, pinning you down. The pain is so unbearable you black out.
You’re awakened the next morning by your neighbor’s shrieks. Someone is digging you out of the rubble. As their faces come into focus you think back to your family. Where are they? Later on someone tells you they’re gone, killed by the debris of their own home. You demand more answers and eventually you get them. That man and his entourage were Taliban rebels seeking quarters. The blast — the U.S. or the Pakistani government was most likely responsible.
You’re on your own now. The debris that fell on your leg caused severe bruising. You’ll be unable to walk for some time. The familiar pang in your stomach signals it’s time to eat. You’ll have to beg one of your neighbors for food for a few days before you figure out what to do.
Anger grips you. Why did they attack us? Why did the Americans or our own government kill my parents? What do I do now? How do I survive without my family? I want to fight back. I want to hurt the men that killed my family.
This is a fictional story, one meant to highlight the problems of our new way of warfare. It is also meant to illustrate, in graphical detail, one of the causes of youth radicalization in Pakistan. The younger generation is witnessing the clash between the West and East in their own backyards. They often feel victimized for being from the “East” and from my conversations with a few of my cousins, they truly feel this is a war against Islam itself.
When I was in Karachi, Pakistan, this summer visiting relatives, I noticed banners for a large rally. The banners read “Go, America, Go” which meant “go away” as opposed to cheering us on. The rally was organized by the Jamaat-e-Islami, a religious political party whose main goal is the establishment of Sharia law in Pakistan. They are protesting the unmanned drone attacks and alleged American incursions into parts of the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas.
I believe that drone attacks are largely responsible for antagonizing the rural and, to a certain degree, the urban population against our efforts at capturing al-Qaida operatives. We are no longer fighting large conventional armies that follow the rules of warfare. We’re fighting unruly bandits, dressed in civilian clothes that could care less about the rules of engagement. We’ve got to get smarter about how we engage enemy forces. We cannot continue to use drones to wipe out an entire village. Don’t do with a butcher knife what you could have done with a scalpel.
One solution I have in mind is to send our guerilla-trained elite forces into parts of South Waziristan. This would save mass deployment of troops and be more effective than aerial bombing. It’s understood by both the U.S. joint chiefs and the Pakistan’s top brass that the U.S. can violate Pakistani’s territorial sovereignty at will.
The key would be to do this clandestinely, so as not to raise the ire of the average Pakistani. What I am saying is bold and unorthodox, but I know it’s the best solution for an unorthodox problem. If we do not do this, Pakistan will grow into a safer haven for Taliban sympathetic to Al-Qaida. After all, if the Pakistani military is too weak to protect Islamabad from assault, can we realistically expect them to be an equal partner in this new type of war in no-man’s land?
asyed@luc.edu
6 comments
My comment is very short. I am living in Islamabad; but the thing is that people living in SWA or those tribal belts should tell the political administrators or Pakistan Army whats happening in their neighborhood. They should tell about the miscreants, militants or so-called Talibans who are creating problems for everyone (Problems like spreading hatred towards USA, hatred towards fellow muslim's, making suicide jackets and plan to bomb humans).
Even if Palestine or Kashmir gets freedom, even if they enforce Islamic Shariah law in the whole world, they wont even stop !!! What is USA doing in Pakistan? You idiots !!! its helping Pakistan ...Warm Regards,
omar_ikram111@yahoo.com