Napoleon –> Clausewitz –> Hitler. He was a vigorous writer, Clausewitz, but he was also of his day, and his day was between the horse and the atom bomb. His vision was of great armies charging across great landscape, and that was far from intrastate, internecine, transnational low-intensity challenge. Because he viewed war as a great stimulus for invention, he might understand both the world’s extensive defense research and arms industries, but, perhaps, set out in the field, he would be lost and searching the horizon hopelessly for massed cavalry.
I fear being made to go back and retrieve On War from my library (it’s around here somewhere), but I am certain of its diminished relevance as regards the Islamic Small Wars (which I now describe as “intrastate, internecine, and transnational low-intensity conflict”). Perhaps he would be excited by the appearance of new fields with relevance to conflict studies, e.g., from psycholinguistics to robotics, and, for sure, he would be a fan of the Office of Naval Research and its counterparts worldwide, but I think he would be an office guy working up “what ifs” and gaming while the great fleets circle the glove in something like strategic balance.
The Caucasus Emirate, the largest group, denied any involvement in the bombing. Meanwhile, al Qaeda has often referenced Central Asia as an important theater for jihad. By most accounts, moreover, there were Chechens training in al Qaeda camps during the 1990s.
In his article, Scott Helfstein will go on to boost greater intelligence cooperation on the part of state services addressing terrorism.
The Islamic Small Wars have provided ample stimulus for a corresponding global evolution in the political, religious, and social conceptualizing of “next societies” or the cultures to be inherited by the immediate next generations and their generations. In fact, for most Muslims and everyone else, resurgent “Islamic Jihad” has been a powerful goad in fostering, at minimum, consideration of cooperation among the most unlikely bedfellows of politics. That Mali, for example, has had to call on France to eject its Al Qaeda type brigands in its north tells precisely that story, as may also numerous and frequent assassinations, bombings, persecutions of minorities, and perversions of local and state laws and security arrangements (see, for example, BBC Panorama: “Secrets of Britain’s Sharia Councils”, posted April 22, 2013) elsewhere in the world.
An intrastate, internecine, and transnational collection of related conflicts — I call them the “Islamic Small Wars (ISW)”, noting, however, that there are other criminal (e.g., cartel, fraud, piracy, etc.), economic, and political conflicts running concomitantly, some separate, some tandem — naturally calls for a heightened level of cooperation on the part of the more entrenched and stable of states.
While most are aware of INTERPOL, which writ allows it to set its hooks into common international criminal matters, I’ve often wondered how the world’s generals and their partners in politics approach the competition for and related “divvying” of large cash, labor / employment-trade, and natural resource supply apart from longstanding commercial trade behavior.
How deeply goes the military-security aspect into political economics?
For example, I’ve been told that Putin’s sour relationship with nemesis Mikhail Khodorkovsky had to do with plans for shipping Russian oil to Chinese ports, which turns out to have been reported in The Washington Post:
Russian authorities arrested Khodorkovsky in 2003 just as his private oil company, Yukos, was completing plans for an oil pipeline across the frontier. He said the project had been endorsed by the Kremlin but may have contributed to his arrest.
Here one may ask what behind the curtain nixed that deal?
Was it Putin’s legendary avarice and kleptocrat mania as described by Moscow journalist Masha Gessen?
Did the CIA or Diplomatic Mission of the United States with NATO support have a word with the Colonel President?
Setting aside that now famous region in thought denoted as “what we don’t know we don’t know” (reference: Landmark Education), we do know that those who appear amid others expressly to intimidate, maim, and murder — in the name of God with their own interests closely attached — have made themselves an international scourge and doubtless inspired consideration of greater intelligence service cooperation between allies and former enemies (quasi-enemies, “frenemies”) with the intent of quelling that deeply misguided and ever tumescent ambition.
As greater cooperation develops — if it does — will it have corresponding effects as regards broadened distributions of capital, freedom, productivity, trade and related improved qualities in living?
Readers know I view language as both a cultural invention and suspension anchored in biology but in its generative states and social grammars as varied and wild as nature.
As we evolve complex, deeply integrated, and often dangerous or fragile systems in our various modern capacities, there are some things in ourselves we may have to adjust. Such adjustments will surely be made first by way of our mouth –> ear –> mind –> heart system.
“If language is an accident, it is a very bad one overall though in individual (actually guild) terms it may be a miraculous possession.”
Hi, A., — given Everett’s experience, language (in invention) may address perceived concerns of “local” interest within the operating milieu of the culture. At the tribal level, that’s relatively easily defined by geophysical reality and the proclivities of the people resident within them. For a modern engineer in a cubicle working with a head full of professional concepts and jargon, I would think the boundaries social, defined partially by who and what inform the humanity in the office.
The “bad accident” may be the bad poet who masks a level of personal harm — degradation, humiliation, shame — by producing some brand of verbal armor, a facet of narcissistic display.
Those in this category, not necessarily “bad poets”, have some intuitive choices to make about “repairing the world” (in the Jewish influence, the term in use is “Tikkun Olam”) while repairing themselves or — here come the bad boys (and girls) — aggrandizing themselves, becoming untouchable, beyond the harm of human thoughts.
Those, indeed, may play some tricks with language.
Those are just my thoughts, but I feel we see them reflected in the news and, more dangerously, encouraging of a harmed mentality internally programmed for revenge against all.
Reference
Daniel L. Everett — There are several sites, including the author’s own, that may be searched up on the web today, and I expect more will appear as the linguist’s star rises. The link given here features today a video of about twelve minutes on “Recursion and Human Thought”.
Tikkun Olam — The link is to Jill Jacob’s 2007 “The History of ‘Tikkun Olam'”.
The beleaguered General Musharraf is in such dire straits these days that it is with a heavy heart indeed that one pens these lines–with heavy heart because one is a personal witness to the qualities of head and heart of the esteemed General. To witness such a man bandied about like a common criminal is a painful sight indeed.
What cannot be denied is that he certainly is the man who took over the country extra legally, held its constitution in abeyance, suspended the basic rights of its citizens, beat up and imprisoned at will an enlightened section of its society, had a sitting Chief Justice of Supreme Court manhandled by lowly cops then fired him from his job and sacked dozens of other judges who refused to play to his tunes.
These indeed are serious crimes in any civilized society ruled by the word of law. But who will cast the first stone in our country. And here is where the biggest of the ironies lies. Those baying for the blood of the General are not exactly babes in the woods.
The wolf pack jumping at the General’s throat is formed of four distinct set of actors i.e. The PML Nawaz Group, the Pakistan People’s Party, the judiciary and the religious right. While every Johnny come lately knows the reason for the religious right’s reason for going after the General, let us have a quick look at the moral credentials of the other three subsets crying for the General’s blood from a moral high ground.
The first subset of the wolf pack is led by a man who goes by the name of Nawaz Sharif and whose political mentor was another General of the yore, who was twice sacked for corruption as Prime Minister of Pakistan forcing that eminent columnist Ayaz Amir to recently call the two brothers as the ‘loan artists’, who wanted to himself become the Ameer-ul-Momineen once, who launched a physical attack on the Supreme Court of Pakistan through a goon squad, who was elected as the Leader of the Pakistan Muslim League and subsequently the IJI (Islamic Democratic Alliance) by the ISI (Pakistan’s Intelligence Agency) as documented in the testimony of the then Army Chief in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, who got thrown into a lockup by General Musharraf from where he managed to slink out after accepting exile to another country in the most shameful of manners.
He today has taken up the flag of justice and is crying himself hoarse hurling threats all around with not a morsel of shame visible on his well-fed façade.
The second subset is led by a man who is also the President of Pakistan, a man who goes by the name of Asif Zardari and who was once affectionately called “Mr. Ten Percent” because of the alleged 10% extortion he forced on people during the various PPP governments, who in 1990 was arrested on charges of blackmail for attaching a bomb to a Pakistani businessman, who stands accused of taking unaccounted millions of Rupees from local Pakistani banks for forestation of Pakistan, who maintained a polo ground in the Prime Ministerial residential compound, who finally admitted owning a £4.35m estate in Surrey, England after denying its ownership for years (including a 20-room mansion and two farms on 365 acres, or 1.5 km², of land), about whom a Swiss investigating magistrate had amassed enough evidence to indict him for a proper jail term and who is alleged to have a role in the brazen murder of his brother-in-law. He has risen up today to become the very personification of virtue grinning like a Cheshire cat all the while.
That leaves the Judiciary–the Holy Cows. If one recalls correctly, in the year 2000, after the proclamation of PCO (Provisional Constitutional Oreder), an Oath of Office for Judges called Order-2000 was issued that required that judiciary to take oath of office under PCO. Four judges, including Chief Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, answering the call of conscience, refused to take oath under the PCO. Rather than becoming a part of a PCO Supreme Court, they resigned and promptly vacated their offices. To fill the positions in the PCO Supreme Court General Musharraf appointed other judges including, among others, none other than Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the Chief Justice of Pakistan today. General Musharraf’s extra-constitutional acts were legitimized by this very PCO Supreme Court, and the Parliament elected under General Musharraf legitimized everything including the PCO Supreme Court by the Legal Framework Order, 2002.
And just to refresh the memory, here is the wording of Article 6 of Pakistan’s Constitution dealing with High Treason.
(1) Any person who abrogates or subverts or suspends or holds in abeyance, or attempts or conspires to abrogate or subvert or suspend or hold in abeyance, the Constitution by use of force or show of force or by any other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason.
(2) Any person aiding or abetting [or collaborating] the acts mentioned in clause (1) shall likewise be guilty of high treason.
(2A) An act of high treason mentioned in clause (1) or clause (2) shall not be validated by any court including the Supreme Court and a High Court.]
(3) [Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament)] shall by law provide for the punishment of persons found guilty of high treason.
In scribe’s opinion the whole charade of the General’s trial should start crumbling sooner than later. For if the General is tried for any of his ‘crimes’, his abettors should not be far behind in line.
So it is not without a reason that the first thing the scribe wants to do after seeing all this hollow moralizing is reach for the sick bag.
So sit tight General. And while you do that, let us all pray;
“O lord who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name, have mercy on us.”
—-
Canadian resident Anwaar Hussain is a former Pakistani F-16 fighter pilot and a graduate of Quaid-E-Azam University of Islamabad with a Masters in Defense and Strategic Studies.
The American “Freedom of Speech” concept was designed specifically to protect discomfiting speech. Here, American Nazis have every right to march through a predominantly Jewish suburb (reference: Skokie, Illinois) — and Jews would be among the first to defend them! (reference: Nat Hentoff). However, the American program and sensibility has been geared to post-Enlightenment equality with a good dose of Greco-Roman esprit and a fair contribution from Hillel by way of Jesus, and those who say bigoted, divisive, and ugly things about others become themselves marginalized.
Our bigots, whatever their type and targets, are free to speak: our citizens are as free to castigate or ignore them.
This with Islam is what the Founding Fathers wished to avoid here, and notably, analogically, Catholic vs. Protestant rivalries were settled very early in Maryland history specifically; it could be said of the Jews chased up from Brazil and representing the Dutch East Indies Company that they readily addressed proposed discrimination and took care of Stuyvesant’s less noble political instincts in New York, and that to everyone’s benefit.
With politics, someone has to go “on point” for every little thing of benefit to the greater comfort, freedom, and security of the general humanity.
The world is behind you, M., but it needs to be behind you where you are!
Me too, perhaps, but I have fewer immediate local concerns.
the ‘qadri,’ the guard who recently killed Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, for being outspoken against Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
The video, released in October 2011, includes handwritten signs that offer further controversial references, as well as predicting the kind of physical or political retribution the band may expect to suffer as a result of the video’s dissemination.
In graduate school, social science empiricism, which to my mind involved “proving the obvious by the most laborious processes possible,” seemed to me unspeakably boring, but I’ve come to appreciate “run the numbers anyway — they might come up a little differently than expected”.
And, in general, taking second looks.
I often repeat from the NASA Observation Group of the 1990s (thank you, Office of Naval Research, for the short gig), “If you look at a picture and think you have seen it, look again.”
Pakistan is suffering.
Web search “Pakistan Assassination” and find this near the top today:
“ISLAMABAD, April 16 (APP): Prime Minister Justice ® Mir Hazar Khan Khoso on Tuesday expressed shock and grief on the death of brother, nephew and son of PML-N President of Balochistan chapter Sanaullah Zehri whose convoy was attacked en-route to Khuzdar.”
Or web search “Pakistan bombing” and find this at the top of the reference:
“At least 17 people have been killed and many injured in Pakistan after a suicide bomb attack in Peshawar.
The Awami National Party (ANP), which governed the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, had called the political rally ahead of next month’s elections.
The Pakistani Taliban, which has repeatedly targeted the ANP, said it had carried out the attack.”
Pakistanis know who is destroying their freedom — or keeping it from them.
They know who is killing them.
Trust musicians to do better than Abraham before God and actually question the Great Authority, the programmed wisdom, the defeating and soul deadening lesson.
Hint: watch for the signs.
And remember: 865,310 YouTube impressions.
Multiply that figure by the relationships influenced.
Pakistani moderates/liberals until now have opted to stay way lower on the radar.
There is no doubt this society is becoming less receptive with each passing day.
Fanaticism in Pakistan is just another day, but could the reason for this on-wheel progression be the absence of an easily accessible alternative narrative?
The abundance of ultra-right wing misinformation and propaganda is something, which people like us meet daily through various media. This material is being channeled through every media known to the dictionary. Where is the equally vocal liberal narrative, needed to confront the populist, ultra-right wing version? Those days are long gone when a silent majority of Pakistani moderates existed. People, who engage the masses, are well aware and concerned with this development.
Pakistan is truly a magical land, where any well has to reach out to people, for quenching their thirst, instead of people coming to the well, to get theirs quenched.
So, an alternative narrative to this rhetoric of hate and ignorance has to be channeled in a manner to Pakistani masses, that it is comprehendible and a source of least contention.
The song has been immensely popular amongst all classes. Its ‘controversial’ lines were digested in most cases by the listeners, with smiles drawn to their faces. The reason being that, the message was comprehendible for many Pakistanis who understood Punjabi (if not spoke); the manner in which it was presented also blunted possible criticism from the far right.
Lines holding rebellious disapproval of society’s collective behavior, did certainly make Pakistanis scratch their heads.
The song at some level was successful in engaging the largest segment of Pakistanis, whom liberals consider outcasts and are content with calling, “simpletons”. Too bad there wasn’t more from the band!
Taimur Rehman’s “Jhoot ka sir ooncha” based on Jalib’s poetry was another inspiration. Forums like “Khudi” and RSOP are also making a difference in whatever narrow space they are provided with.
Just like politicians have been facing allegations of ‘drawing room’ politics, I think Pakistani moderates and liberals too should engage in introspection. Engaging the “simpleton” is the key, some liberal forums had that opportunity, to engage this segment of Pakistanis. They instead have since recently, started using this opportunity for misdemeanors and provoking the masses instead.
They were initially doing a pretty good job, addressing the easy comprehension and accessibility problem, rather effectively.
This tells us that this engagement needs to be carried out in some prescribed bounds, so that offense is minimal, while the message is also conveyed tactfully. If anything is done to the contrary, then it would be just like providing fodder to conspiracy theorists and ultra- wing wingers, hell bent upon proving liberals to be enemies of state and the religion of majority.
We must learn this and learn it quickly, that the space available for liberals to maneuver in this highly intransigent society is very reedy.
To make any difference would require a mixture of perseverance and sugar coating one’s message.
Today we see many liberal forums on Facebook and Tweets from the “enlightened ones”. There is all sort of discourse on politics, religion, notions of ‘ghairat’ etc. Ideological rhetoric is being splashed against groups and pages walls, but I ask you, what I used to ask my own self: Frankly speaking, it doesn’t make much of a difference, because rightists don’t give a fish about all this blabbering.
Liberals immersed in their drawing room culture and extreme cynicism keep on crying all day long about the injustices and ignorance in our society, but do not engage “The Simpleton”.
Exchange of ideas between the “enlightened ones” alone can’t make miracles.
The rationale has to trickle down to the common man in a comprehendible and “toned down” language, for things to change for good. Presently, this is not happening, liberals are content with communicating amongst closed communities, which give little space to simpletons. They need to at least start pitching their version to a larger audience. When you do not engage other side in a rational dialogue and put forth your options, how do you expect it to start thinking out of the “establishment’s box”?
There are numerous forums, which attract far greater following (from the age group of 15-30, mainly) than liberal forums. These basically promote the same tattered versions of history and farfetched conspiracy theories, which today’s Pakistani liberal-moderate detests with all his/her power of reason.
Present day Pakistani moderates and liberals have yet to embrace this fact that social media is a revolution in itself.
While, in Pakistan’s case it is an opportunity unparalleled by any other, since the past three ‘lost’ decades. This media of all others could provide a robust platform for objective discourse, ultimately concluding itself in reshaping public opinion and redirection of priorities (in matters encompassing state and religion).
Over 8 Million Pakistanis maintain regular Facebook accounts.
The number of internet users in Pakistan is over 20 Million with 11.5% internet penetration, per ITU statistics. Internet penetration in Pakistan is second highest after India in South Asia. Pakistan is amongst the top thirty countries with most Facebook users, while the breakup of the Pakistani Facebook users in terms of age groups tells us that, 98% of Pakistani Facebook users are between the age group of 13-44.
Intellectuals have been writing extensively on how Evangelists and Televangelists targeted Pakistani middle class youth, since the 80-90’s. They penetrated universities and colleges. They then made inroads to the electronic media. Even Pakistani pop music industry was approached, resulting in transformation of two singers, Junaid Jamshed into an evangelical and Ali Azmat into a Televangelist.
The religious conversion of Pakistani cricketers is not news unheard, either.
Without spiting the evangelicals and televangelists for what they did, I would like to guide the attention of my readers to the success their strategy bore. There are lessons to be learned from the strategy adopted by these groups. They mainly targeted youth, which had humongous amounts of potential and were easy to manipulate after a decade long fundamentalist indoctrination during Zia’s regime.
They invested in the FUTURE.
Visibly evangelicals and televangelists cashed this situation big time.
How are the liberals and moderates utilizing the social media?
Liberals and moderates aren’t approaching their fellow countrymen and women with their versions of the story, they instead keep attributing all ills of the country to role of state agencies, the government, army, clergy (religion itself at times-society isn’t ready for that, yet), Saudis, right leaning media and Zaid Hamid without making any serious effort to play their part in bringing some lucidity to this freak show.
This all happens in small restricted groups, composing liberals, hence, no trickling down.
It is often observed that these episodes transform into bashing or disowning Pakistan after getting frustrated.
Does bashing the only place we could call as ‘home’ in the name of realism help? The answer would certainly be in negation.
Then what could be done?
Rational argument never goes unheard, if your addressee refuses to accept the validity of your rational argument on your face, he/she will certainly give it a thought once trying to sleep at night. There is something about a rational argument, that some part of it always seeps deeper into the skin and touches hearts. Even if, some of it seeps in, consider you have a job well done at your hands.
Key will always be the same, keep pitching the liberal narrative in easy access and comprehension of the simpletons.
Availability of options will provide people with choices, something, which they really never had before.
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