Pakistan is the Epicenter of Threat to World Survival
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
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"The Taliban were a wholly Pakistani project, financed by the U.S.-supported military regime."
The nexus of world disorder is not Sudan, or Lebanon, or Somalia. It is Pakistan, and has been so from the beginning of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, in 1947. Formed as a theologically-based state, in opposition to the secular state of newly independent India, Pakistan was the British and American answer to ascendant Indian socialism. Pakistan immediately became the great U.S. hammer to threaten the Indians, and to keep the region on a permanent war footing, that would nullify the possibility of development in the subcontinent. The U.S. poured billions of dollars into the Pakistani military, to keep up the pressure against much larger India, which had fraternal relations with the Soviet Union. The Americans thought they were playing a Third World, Cold War trump card, but in fact, they were creating a monster.
Inevitably, the U.S. patronage of the Pakistani military led to a series of military dictatorships, that were at the same time dependent on fundamentalist Muslims for public support. Not understanding the internal dynamics of Pakistani society - not even caring, really - the Americans continued to cultivate Pakistan's military class. They were extremely useful in providing bases of support in the CIA and Saudi Arabian jihad against the Soviets, after the Russian intervention in Afghanistan, in 1980. The mujahadin were born, under the joint sponsorship of the Saudis, the Americans, and Pakistan. These forces would later incubate Al Qaida. But first, Pakistan would impose its own regime in Afghanistan: the Taliban. The Taliban were a wholly Pakistani project, financed by the U.S.-supported military regime, but manned by the fundamentalist preachers in thousands of maddrassas - religious schools that graduated students to military training. The Taliban marched from Pakistan to the Afghan capital, Kabul, in 1996. Osama bin Ladin, a Saudi, secured his base of operations.
"Osama bin Ladin lives in Waziristan, in the Pakistani tribal region next to Afghanistan, and everybody knows it."
Blowback is a bitch. Pakistan, a real rogue state in the world, along with Israel, developed nuclear weaponry, explicitly as a Muslim bomb. President Bill Clinton's administration pretended to protest, but kept funding the military regime. Then Pakistan's nuclear entrepreneur, Dr. A.Q. Khan, began to market the nuclear technology everywhere money could be made: North Korea, Libya, and who knows where else. Dr. Khan's activities could not have occurred in the Pakistani police state, without the state's approval. After a pitiful protest by President Bush, Khan was put under very comfortable house arrest, which has now been eased. And the "Islamic Bomb" exists, in Pakistan.
The regime is inherently unstable, and made more so by the incoherent American pressures. Osama bin Ladin lives in Waziristan, in the Pakistani tribal region next to Afghanistan, and everybody knows it. Periodically, the Pakistani regime pretends to assert control, but they are inherently and historically tied to the same fundamentalist forces that the Americans demand they annihilate. The regime moved against Islamabad's so-called "Red Mosque" last week, leaving scores of people dead, and threatening a general conflagration in Pakistan. The military government, under huge pressure from the Americans, is attacking its base of supporters.
The Bomb is there. The missiles are there. The blowback will ultimately occur here.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.
Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
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