Who killed Benazir ? Suicide bombings were unheard of in Pakistan before 9/11. And before the US ordered Musharraf to send his army against his own people in Pakistan’s western regions to flush out the Taliban. Why ? The supposed reason was to look for Osama Bin Laden. But that was EIGHT years ago, and Osama could be dead of natural causes by now. No one talks about him anymore in any case, and the Keyword has become Al Quaeda, about whom no one knows very much. Because Al Quaeda has now becomea ‘philosophy of terrorism ‘ as an acceptable tool of warfare, rather than a cohesive organization anymore. It is the usual construct of the Western World looking for simple answers to vastly complex problems of cultural divide, religious divide and harsh economic disparities……
And if Al Quaeda is now a philosophy of warfare, then how is it helping that Musharaf sends his troops to fight his own people, and causing huge alienation by killing civilians and calling it collatoral damage ? The philosophy of suicide bombings is merely being exported out of the region by alienating people and encouraging them towards terrorism.
In the pursuit of protecting their own civilizations and borders the West have sent their forces into the other parts of the world and created havoc. They call it counter terrorism but have actually encouraged terrorism in it’s extreme form, and thrown huge parts of the world in to chaos. And they have done so through ignorance of the basic issues involved, of the cultures involved, and of the people involved. Just as they did in Vietnam.
Benazir was killed by the rising tide of this philosophy of terrorism. And the answer to this problem lies in a much deeper analysis and understanding of the causes of it. For as it rises in the world, none of us are safe anymore.
shekhar
sekhar,
One thing is for sure that Islam has very different
ideas on how to lead life and does not think that west is right. Unlike other civilzations India,China
Japan it does not believe in the western values. It also thinks it is superior. It is indeed a clash of civilization and the end only can happen
with great events. Japan turned pacifist after it was bombed.
There cannot be a middle way unless a big event happens. Benazir killing is a very small
event. Terrorism is a clash of idea and the middle way can only prevail when the two collide in a big way and find middle grounds.
Vishal
Dear Shekhar,
I agree that Al-Qaeda has become a philosophy for terrorism and the west has no option but to go after them as they indeed plan to cause harm to western interests. There are quite a few extremist organizations that are still indeed organized and will continue to work to harm the free and wealthy world. Again, getting to the root causes and understanding the philosophy of trouble in every troubled region of the world before taking any action requires a lot of time and may really not prevent terrorism from growing as there is no pin pointed solution. These organization should be in fear of America that it will come after them and then only there radicalized elements can be significantly destroyed if not completely eliminated.
Right now, the US seems to be a loan warrior in this massive quest and they can only do so much with their intelligence. I think the major powers like US, China, India, Russia, UK and France need to get together and formulate a worldwide plan to eliminate this radicalization. This will give the coalition a greater reach to every part of the world, plus the world will stop pointing fingers just at the US. I hail the US president that in spite of declining approval rating he has continued the offensive on terrorism and Al-Qaeda or any organization has not be able to conduct any attack in the last 7 yrs(that shows something). Other countries are not as serious – Paris has burned, London has had attacks, India often has bombings. A global plan with huge force committed (say 100,000 from each) from each of the superpowers and the approval of the world can change everything. Understanding the root cause is of little use with radicalized people, who will never be motivated to change by diplomacy or good will. And big events can change the mindset of almost everyone who is affected – the whole root cause and what they are capable of doing changes if massive action is taken by the authorities of the world.
Everyone should be given the right to live in the human civilization, but the key world is “civil” and if you are not civilized you are not fit for this planet. Right now the US is the lone warrior in this cause and other powers need to join them, not just in principle but in execution to root out this evil. We must all believe that this is a problem that can be solved (and trust me it is – there must be just a few million radicalized people) and we just have to act and keep the offensive on them. If there is a massive effort the world would be a much safer place in 10 yrs. It’s all in the belief. If we believe it will be, and act, it will be. Anyways, if you ask me, most of the world is still quite safe and most of the people are basically good.
Best Regards,
Himanshu
If we look back at the past century,we’ll see that uncle sam has been the cause for all types of terrorism. initially,it was for ideological reasons. then, it was blatantly economic. it is so at present too.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened to save a few American lives!!
Kuwait invasion, ostentatiously to protect the terririal integrity of iraq, was in fact, an effort to I. protect american hold on the Middle east oil 2.to dispose of the weapons gathering dust in the American weapon factories. we know that the economic boom witnessed during clinton days was the fall out of the kuawit war and the boom in the arms indstry.
The long and short of it is, uncle sam cannot survive without selling his weapons. so he’d always want to keep alive the bogey of terrorism.