Pakistan's Hyper-nationalist delusions, then and now....

[BlueOval]

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Establishment apologists, political newcomers and their media proxies have finally found a message that appeals to young and old alike, and it’s selling like any popular drink or like any hit musical programme updating its classic hits with a new twist, the latest message also has its roots in the past. Splashed across newspaper headlines and filling the airwaves from TV channels across the country is the promise of a nation united behind a glorious war set to the latest anti-American beat. But before we buy into this hyper-nationalist zealotry, we should consider what effect this has had when we have been sold this same promise of glory in the past.

Though the choice of the United States as the target of our “Munh Torr jawab daingay” may be new, the pattern in which this latest round of jingoistic fervour is emerging has a familiar ring to it. According to the hyper-nationalists, all of our problems are caused by devious foreign enemies.

We are maligned and abandoned by the international community. The truth is ignored or covered up by an anti-Pakistan foreign media. But we assure ourselves that our ‘all weather ally’ China will stand beside us in our moment of greatest need, and, despite all obstacles, we will prevail victorious.

Chests swell, flags wave, and children spontaneously break out in song - the Qaumi Tarana ringing to the heavens. While the majority of our citizens may have been born after 1971, there are still a few of us old enough to remember that painful time. We were told that crypto-Hindus in East Pakistan were plotting against the state.

Sheikh Mujib’s Awami League was a tool of Indian machinations. Our brave Gen Yahya Khan and his supporters in the religious right-wing were restoring law and order when Indian forces exploited the situation to break the back of Pakistan. The time had come to end, once and for all, India’s nefarious designs on Pakistan. “Crush India” was the slogan of the day just as “Crush America” is the banner of today’s retired generals and Islamic party demonstrators.

This was to be a modern Battle of Badr and our mighty jawans, though outnumbered, were chomping at the bit. They would soon serve the Bharatis a humiliation they would not ever forget. Newspaper headlines declared our victories in bold relief. I saved all the newspapers from December 1, 1971 until the end of the year. Here are some real headlines from what was then the largest English newspaper published from Karachi: “IT’S NOW ALL-OUT WAR;” “BIG GAINS ON LAND, IN AIR;”” HEAVY ENEMY LOSSES.”

The government led by General Yahya Khan invoked sacrifices of Hazrat Abu Bakr and Hazrat Omar to defend the Ummah, and called on all Pakistanis to donate to defence fund. Front page advertisements, sponsored by companies, boldly proclaimed “JEHAD.”

On December 17, 1971 newspapers carried the bold headline, “WAR TILL VICTORY,” even though a day earlier, on December 16, Lt General A.A.K. Niazi had surrendered to India’s Lt General Jagjit Singh Aurora along with 90,000 soldiers and civilians in Dhaka’s Paltan Maidan in a humiliating ceremony shown all over the world except, of course, in Pakistan. While promising ‘War Till Victory’, the newspapers of December 17 also had another much smaller headline that said: ‘Yahya orders ceasefire’. Two days later, Yahya’s government collapsed and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took control of the government in the western half of Pakistan. 9,000 Pakistanis lay dead. China, who had no interest in getting dragged into Pakistan’s internal matters had sat quietly on the sidelines. A new flag was raised in Dhaka - not the tri-color khadi of India, but the green and red of Bangladesh.

The war that began amid jingoist fervour was over. Pakistan was cut in half. The Ghairat Brigade was reduced to finding complex conspiracy theories and explanations for why the Ummah’s grand could not be victorious.

The simple but honest reason, that we had alienated the Bengali people and simply did not have the military prowess to simultaneously fight in two wings, was suppressed with labels of ‘traitor’ for anyone who offered them. Hyper-nationalism does not like reality. It feeds on lies and delusions.

This cycle was repeated in 1999, when adventurous generals decided to carry out the unfortunately named ‘Operation Badr’ and occupy Indian positions on the Line of Control that had been abandoned during winter. When the infiltration was discovered, India responded with a mobilization of 200,000 troops. The national media beat the drum of support for Kashmiri freedom fighters and ISPR’s Brigadier Rashid Qureshi insisted that regular Pakistani troops had nothing to do with the fighting. The architect of this misadventure, General Pervez Musharraf, proved like Yahya Khan to be a coup-maker later. Like Yahya in 1971, Musharraf too had based his entire ‘strategy’ on wrong assumptions, which crumbled in the face of the reality of overwhelming force.

As in 1971, China once again refused to sacrifice itself for our adventures and insisted that Pakistan withdraw to its original positions on the LoC. Nawaz Sharif, then Prime Minister, was turned away by Beijing and boarded a plane to Washington, DC where he asked President Clinton to help resolve the conflict before an Indian naval blockade starved Pakistan for fuel.

Once again, thousands of Pakistanis lay dead and hundreds wounded because of a delusional view of Pakistan’s position fuelled by jingoistic bravado. Nawaz Sharif also paid a heavy price for not standing up to adventurist generals and their jingoist media supporters.

Historians can debate whether the divorce between East and West Pakistan could have been avoided, but there is no question that the jingoistic fervour with which the drum of war was beaten in 1971 resulted in unnecessary and avoidable death, destruction, and humiliation. We should consider whether repeating this same pattern today will also repeat the same results - or worse.

Egged on by a media that glorifies the fearless invincibility of our nation of 180 million, young people are parroting George Bush and daring the Americans to ‘bring it on’. But the idea that the Americans will launch a ground invasion of Pakistan or that Pakistan will emerge victorious from such an encounter is beyond delusional. Those who are making promises of ‘fierce resistance’ to an American attack should answer one question: How do they plan to stop a Tomahawk missile or deal with the havoc that US air superiority -demonstrated so often -could wreak?

Yes, suicide bombers and Fedayeen might kill a few American soldiers and we may be able to repeat the ‘Black Hawk Down’ incident in which a US helicopter was downed in Somalia. But is becoming another Afghanistan or Somalia what we aspire to as a nation?In 1971, a Pakistani military of 365,000 troops faced an Indian opponent of 500,000. In 2011, our military forces number 617,000 active personnel. We spend 2.4 per cent of our GDP on defence, $6.4 billion.

The American military has over 1.5 million active military personnel on duty, and they spend 4.7 percent of their annual GDP on defence - $692 billion. In fact, the US spends more on its military than the next seventeen nations combined.

When the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, they didn’t line up their troops and charge across the border. They rained down laser guided cruise missiles and bunker busting bombs that destroyed every bit of radar, communications, and anti-aircraft defences that stood in their way. Then they flew bombing sorties and took out every piece of heavy artillery until all that was left were guerrilla fighters who could be a nuisance, but were reduced to living in the horrific conditions of post-war Iraq and Afghanistan. The Americans might not have figured out what to do with nations after they conquer them, but no serious analyst questions their ability to win a fight or destroy another country.

Thankfully, Pakistan does not find itself in this dire position. We still have the option of talking with American counterparts willing to take our calls. The Americans are not pounding the drum of war, they are asking for frank and honest dialogue. We would do well to take the path of diplomacy while it is still open to us. Taking a realistic view of our position vis-‡-vis the Americans does not bring us humiliation; it provides us an opportunity to avoid bringing humiliation on ourselves by pretending to be more powerful that we are. When we whip up jingoistic passions to feed hyper-nationalistic delusions, it is always ourselves who end up suffering. Rather than repeat the mistakes of the past, let’s take the rational approach this time.

National pride comes not from defiant slogan-mongering or abusing others loudly. It comes from being a nation that has 100 percent literacy, a large GDP, a functioning democracy, respect for human rights and minorities and a populace that is at peace amid prosperity.

Hyper-nationalist delusions, then and now

[GUNS-N- ROSES]

nice article. full of honesty. thanx to OP.

[vikas jat]

nice

[Manmohan Yadav]

Thanks for being Honest

[Naren1987]

It comes from being a nation that has 100 percent literacy, a large GDP, a functioning democracy, respect for human rights and minorities and a populace that is at peace amid prosperity.

Pakistan's left wingers are a lot more sensible than our pseudo secular, anti industry marxists,
I'd trade anytime.