The military operation in South Waziristan against hostile Al-Qaeda terrorists has drawn flak from the opposition, in particular from the MMA that claims to represent public sentiment in the tribal areas. This is not unexpected. The operation is being conducted at the behest of the Bush administration and everyone in the tribal areas hates Uncle Sam. But human rights groups have also demonstrated their ire at the loss of innocent civilian lives caught in the crossfire. In fact there are many liberals who are demanding that the army should cease operations and get out of the tribal areas immediately before an unprecedented blowback plunges the country into a new crisis. Why should we help fight America’s war, why should we do its dirty work, it is angrily asked? Why, indeed?
For starters, if we didn’t, America would most certainly do the job itself. Like it did in the Taliban’s Afghanistan after 9/11 with B-52 bombers, and precision bunker busting bombs, and helicopter gunships and even cruise missiles. And what can we do if it were to apply its pre-emptive doctrine to our tribal areas? Twiddle our thumbs like we did when American cruise missiles were winging their way to Afghanistan over sovereign Pakistani airspace in 1998 in search of Osama bin Ladin’s training camps? Take on America militarily for violating our territorial sovereignty? Protest on the streets and burn the American flag? Go to the UN? But if this is not the time for a replay of the impotent passion and rage that sparked a foolish stampede of tribal lashkars from the tribal areas in aid of the Taliban after the American bombing started in 2001, it is certainly time to absorb a couple of basic truths: one, our tribal areas are flush with terrorists from Arabia, Africa, Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Sinkiang, etc, all with Al-Qaeda links; two, we should be as opposed to Al-Qaeda terrorism as America is and as determined to rid our country of this scourge as America is. Indeed, in this context, America’s war is our war. If the local jirga system is unable or unwilling to act against powerful local mercenaries in cahoots with the terrorists, then the Pakistani military must get on with it. If Afghanistan was unacceptable to the world and to us as a base area for Islamic terrorism, how can we then allow our tribal areas to become another Afghanistan?
For opportunist reasons, the “federally administered” tribal areas remain an anachronism of history, thwarting our nationhood. On the inexplicable pretext of “preserving the tribal way of life”, the state of Pakistan has actually reduced these territories and their people to 19th century museums flush with stinger missiles, rocket launchers, mortars, artillery, electronics and automobiles. Local warlords thrive and posture as gentry and parade in our national parliaments as political worthies to be feared, spoilt and cultivated. Meanwhile, the economy of these areas is linked to Afghanistan more than it is to Pakistan, even as criminals in Peshawar and Karachi are linked to the tribal areas through the provision of effective escape routes, hospitalities ands hideouts, and even as the drug laboratories of these areas lure millions of unsuspecting Pakistanis into the vicious drug trap. All this must change. Pakistan simply cannot afford to live with the concept of the autonomous tribal areas. And if this is a compelling moment in history to extend the writ of the Pakistan state, we should grit our teeth and bear it rather than whinge about it in misplaced concreteness.
Of course, this does not absolve the Pakistan military of criticism aimed at its methods. For one, the high level of military casualties is quite stunning, suggesting bad intelligence and worse military tactics. We are talking here of a few hundred armed terrorists versus many thousands of Pakistani soldiers. Then there was the inexplicable allusion to Aiman Al Zawahiri, the right hand of OBL, who was officially said to be hiding in the Wana area, which held out the promise of a big catch for the Americans. Why did we have to say this, even if it was true to the best of our intelligence? Now that he seems to have escaped through a “labyrinth of tunnels”, we have egg on our face. General Pervez Musharraf is in an unenviable situation. This year presents many difficulties for him. He must clean up Pakistan’s act on the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda terrorists who have taken refuge in our country. He is obliged to uncover all evidence of the nuclear proliferation racket of Dr A Q Khan and hand it over to the Americans. He must reign in the bristling Kashmiri jihadis so that the peace process with India is not derailed. In many ways, each self created problem’s solution involves some sort of Faustian bargain in which General Musharraf will have to sell a little bit not only of his own soul but also that of the military to the Great Satan. It is a task in which he should be assisted, not undermined, in the larger interest of Pakistan.