Pakistan today is the outcome of first the disastrous collusion of the eighties and early nineties followed by the bloody collision between American foreign policies and self-declared Islamic extremism. Both the collusion and the collision are costing Pakistan dearly.
Pakistan was the world’s most dangerous laboratory for the cold war, and now for the so called U.S. war on terror. It was the U.S. that masterminded the use of an armed political Islamic movement as a counter for Communism. Once the Cold War was over these former fighters, mujaheddin, turned against the Western infidels whom they had never trusted.
Pakistani rulers acquiesced to becoming a recruiting ground for anticommunist Islamic fundamentalism. They fanned the flames of fanaticism, using it to consolidate their legitimacy and prove useful to American foreign policy. Instead of building and consolidating Pakistan’s democratic institutions, they fostered control, repression, fanaticism and subservience: first to American cold war policies, then to the "war on terror.”
Both policies relied on entrenching dictatorships. Mrs. Bhutto was never too far from the dealings of the Pakistani secret services, and now as she covets power again she has no qualms about seeking American mediation for some kind a partnership with a dictator.
Pakistani leaders now face bigger challenges than a mere return to the US-Pakistan policies of the eighties. A more fanatic breed of self-declared Islamic extremists, who use religion in newly distorted forms, is now taking over. U.S.-backed air raids, bombings, arrests and crackdowns may have weakened the main Islamic party Gammat
Islami, but those crackdowns have produced splinter groups that are more difficult to control. The former breeding ground of the anti-Communist mujaheddin has transformed into to a fertile ground for a new kind of armed fanaticism, nurtured by repression and social injustice.
In the end, Pakistani leaders pursue personal ambitions of power at the expense of Pakistani interests, and the country bears the brunt of the responsibility. But Washington is also responsible. When General Musharraf appeared weak, it was Washington that intervened to give him a new boost. But Musharraf provided no solution for his country's
problems, relying instead on American support and sheer brutal force.
Pakistan today is a reminder to all countries, especially to the Muslim world, of the danger of blindly choosing security and military measures over institution-building. Extremist groups that employ distorted Islamic ideologies to achieve their own ends cannot be dealt with by repression and force. Pakistan is a witness to the failure of such policies, and to the danger of blindingly following Washington's whims.
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