A Culture of Fear

If you had asked a college student on the 10Th of September, 2001 what came to his mind when you mentioned the word terrorist to him, his answer would have probably been either IRA, Tamil Tigers or the PLO. One day and over 3000 deaths later, the only words that people would associate with terror for decades were Islam, Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

One can say that the massive number of deaths caused by the incident, over 3000 people, was the reason why people remembered it. If that were the real reason then the world should have also mentioned the 2005 Pakistan Earthquake that by some accounts killed over 100,000 people, over 33 times the number of deaths that took place on the September 11th attacks, but that's not really the case , in fact most people around the world would either never have heard about it or don't care to remember.

Perhaps the reason was that it was American lives that were lost in the incident and somehow American lives are more important to the International community than others, but then why wasn't a war on Tobacco or a full scale military invasion of Phillip Morris's corporate headquarters launched for the over 435,000 American deaths caused by smoking tobacco every year?

Sadly it doesn't matter what angle you look at it from, the conclusion is that September 11th was so nicely packaged, coreographed and promoted for the benefit of the viewers of the media, that it justified almost any step of any magnitude that the U.S government would choose to take whether it be an invasion of Afghanistan for public appeasement or a full scale attack on a feeble Iraq in order to appease AIPAC and the Israeli lobby with the proxy war they wanted.

The real victory was not the United States ability to put down troops on the ground anywhere in the world and flex its military muscles without any moral backlash from the international community. The real victory was the culture of fear that was bred that allowed them to brainwash and control to some extent the international public and most definately the American public, to take liberties with the constitution never before dreamed of and to erode human rights and the rights of its citizens.

Its this Culture of fear: the fear of going to school cause some nut in math class with a gun might shoot you (a singularly American phenomenon), The fear of flying on planes, the fear of the shoes of your fellow passengers and what horrors they might contain, the fear of biological weapons and dirty bombs, the fear of men with long beards and short tempers, the fear of Palestinians, Pakistani's, Saudi's, Syrian's, Jordanian's, Lebanese, Malay's,Indonesian's or anybody that even remotely looks foriegn, the fear of Department of Homeland Security declarations of terror alert levels being lifted to orange from green even though no reason for this is forthcoming, the fear of train stations, bus stations and airports and the fear of people who leave their luggage unattended, the fear of the patriot act and what it might do to you, the fear of losing your job to outsourcing, the fear of african bees invading america, the fear of the razor left in the trick or treat candy, the fear of fear.

The best part about all this is that we dont even need any one thing in particular to be afraid of anymore. Fear and paranoia, after so many years of media conditioning has become a constant state of mind instead of an occasional emotional response to an event. what we must ask ourselves is, is it worth it living in so much fear just because 3000 people died 6 years ago ?
Is it worth it giving up our rights as citizens and our rights as human beings corroded so we can get imprisoned by our own governments hiding behind the patriot act and constitutional loopholes like Rendition? Is it worth it to see our children grow up in this culture of fear and have their innocent minds poisoned by Rupert Murdoch's lie factories? I only speak for myself but the fact that drugs like Aspirin kill more than 7,600 people a year (thats 2 9/11's) helped me decide that living in fear so others can take advantage of my vulnerability is not really an option.

Musical Chairs

In the interest of democracy and promoting a free judiciary, General Pervez Musharraf after arresting and imprisoning all his political opposition and judges, decided to step down as cheif of the Army last week. The media would have you believe that it was a good day for American strong arm diplomacy and that American pressure has saved the day for Pakistani democracy, sadly theres as much truth to that as an American politician selling "No New Taxes".

Musharraf stepped down as army chief the eve before he was to be sworn in as president of pakistan for yet another term. The U.S pressured Musharraf to appoint General Kiyani, another pro-American General willing to tow the wests line, as the new Chief of Army Staff. The current scenario has allowed Musharraf to use the Army to bully his way to power once more but strip the uniform to take office as a civilian hence keeping the veneer of a democratic government intact.

There has also been speculation that the U.S plans on Backing former ousted Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, who has promised the U.S Military greater access into Pakistan (contrary to the Pakistani publics wishe) in exchange for another chance to get into office and to rob the country blind as she's accused of doing in her last term.

Meanwhile the fundamentalists are now beginning to be joined by regular Pakistani's who until now had never thought of doing anything militant but have grown tired of outside interference and military rule in their country. a recent stream of bomb blasts and attacks against the military, along with widespread protests int he country against the military, some of them violent, drive home the fact that the Pakistani people have had enough.

The Hand That Feeds

U.S. Hopes to Use Pakistani Tribes Against Al Qaeda, blares a New York Times headline. The article outlines a new military proposal to arm, finance and support tribesmen in the now war torn tribal regions of northern Pakistan, to fight against invading Taliban from the west. the plan calls for shipping in men and equipment en-mass into Pakistan in order to train and arm these so called "friendly" tribals to the teeth.

One shudders to think of the sheer stupidity and the severe short sightedness of American military policy as it was arming so called "friendly" Mujahideen in the 80's that has brought Afghanistan to its present state. Now the U.S is proposing to repeat its mistake for good measure in Pakistan with no thought of whats going to happen to all these armed "friendly"tribals after the dust settles. What of the extremely fragile political situation in the country? what of the Pakistani public that doesn't want anything to do with America or its war, and what of the ever present and growing Anti-American sentiments in Pakistan.

Its not that big a stretch of the imagination to see these tribesmen, at best using the American's own weapons and training against them or at worst using them against the government and people of Pakistan and taking over a nuclear state.

Either outcome would be disastrous for all involved.

The Democracy To End All Democracies.

It’s sad that my generation and many others had to live to see the day when ideals like Justice, Equality and Freedom would have to be set aside in order to further American strategic aims. In Pakistan, supposedly America’s closest ally in the war on terror, General Musharraf, the American supported dictator, has imposed a state of emergency citing rising extremist and terrorism in the country. In fact General Musharraf was about to be ruled against by the Supreme Court that his holding office was unconstitutional. This state of emergency also helps to indefinitely delay elections that had been promised by the end of this year and guarantees absolute power to the general. All this is acceptable to the U.S because it ensures that as long as their dictator is in place, the American military will be given continued access to secret bases within Pakistan and the Pakistani military. Two things that the people of Pakistan or a democratic government would never have allowed.

Pakistan is a country that unwillingly finds itself becoming the front line in the war against terror and as a result the country has had a gradual rise in terrorist incidents like bomb blasts and kidnappings, but there had been nothing major happening in the time period that Musharraf declared emergency. Indeed there had been a much bigger threat to national security only a few months previous to the declaration, when extremists took over a mosque in the capital city of Islamabad and were threatening the government and the capitals inhabitants. Then the government decided to conduct a full blown military siege without declaring emergency the but now that elections were drawing closer and Musharraf could feel the heat from the Supreme Court, The real nature of the emergency became clear to him. Throughout this time the U.S continues to support Musharraf, both with military equipment and monetarily while only showing token resistance in the form of “deeply distressing” feelings expressed by the white house and hollow ultimatums.

Meanwhile Musharraf has used the increased terror fighting capabilities bestowed upon him by this state of emergency to dismantle the Supreme Court (the real threat to international peace and prosperity), swear in new judges overnight, scrap the country’s constitution, arrest all opposition political leaders, shut down television channels/news presses and issue a new provisional constitutional order that revokes all rights from the citizens and the media and gives the General absolute power. The international community has tried to put pressure on Musharraf, the commonwealth has issued an ultimatum for Musharraf to step down and the U.S is now trying to convince Musharraf to step aside and let the corrupt Ex-Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto to take office so that an illusion of democracy can be maintained.

While this entire power struggle is going on in the capital with everyone concerned with who gets to play the big boss for the next few years, the real reason for the war on terror, the Islamic Extremists, have taken full control of the SWAT region in the North West Frontier of Pakistan and the place has become a no-go area for security forces. Everyone’s too preoccupied with playing king to notice that the foundations on which the throne stands are cracking. The government is now also faced with a huge crisis in the Balochistan province with separatist rebels who after years of neglect by the government and having their requests for assistance repeatedly ignored have vowed to seek independence from Pakistan.

Meanwhile the state of injustice and poverty that is the breeding ground for dissention and terrorism is growing worse by the day. Curfews and barricades mean that the few schools in the country stay closed and children go without education. Closed markets mean that the poor don’t get to make the meager wages that they used to make. The military and police are also having a field day terrorizing the public, openly beating and arresting students, lawyers and anyone else who dares to come out in the street to demonstrate against the tyranny, hence effectively forming a whole new generation of terrorists. 2 days ago, 26students for the Lahore University of Management Sciences, the top rated business and management school in Pakistan were arrested for protesting against the government, there have been hundreds of arrests in the past few days from opposition leaders to anyone who dares to speak out against the government. Those arrested tend to disappear into secret prisons run by the military intelligence agency ISI, notorious for being a state within a state, with no way of accounting for how many people were abducted and what became of them.

Overnight this once proud democratic country has become a picture of military fascism very similar to the Germany of old right before Hitler took power and subjected the world to his wrath. If Pakistan descends into Civil war which is most definitely a possibility, then the U.S would have found itself a democracy to end all democracies, an ex-democracy dismantled by U.S meddling and now a nuclear power possibly run by the very enemies the U.S vowed to destroy. Wouldn't that be cause for a whole list of new neat 3 digit date references? Let’s hope the people of Pakistan can handle the mess we made and the rest of us never have to find out.

Hail To The Theif!

A lot of people saw it comming, they warned us against it, but it has finally happened all the same. General Pervez Musharraf, Dictator of Pakistan for the last 9 years and one of america's closest allies on the war on terror, finding himself at risk of being ruled against by the country's supreme court for illegally holding the office of the president while being the head of the army, has declared a "state" of emergency and effectively silenced any opposition .

Members of the provincial assemblies have resigned in protest. disenting voices have been silenced by illegal arrests. The constitution has been thrown out and a new Provisional Constitutional order has been brought in , authored by the general himself to give him complete and total power. The United States has expressed that it is deeply distressed by the situation while the pentagon has issued a statement that this will not in any way affect the flow of funds and military equipment to Pakistan.

sort of clear how distressing this is for the American government, meanwhile 160,000,000 Pakistanis have had all their rights revoked.Their freedom of movement , freedom of speech , freedom to speak out against the administrations injustices have all ceased to exist. Media channels were taken off the air, and blamed with not towing the administrations line enough. newspaper presses have been shut down by military personnel and Pakistan has become an information vaccum. All brought to you by a man who is still fully supported by the U.S government, the oldest democracy in the world. oh the irony.

The Puppet Masters

Apparently the only way left to export democracy is to support military dictatorships. On the 8^th of October, General Pervez Musharraf, the dictator of Pakistan for the last 9 years won another rigged presidential election. Half of his parliament boycotted or resigned in frustration. General Musharraf still enjoys the United States undivided support as its most important partner in the war on terror.

Without U.S support, Musharraf could never have maintained illegal military control over a democratic country for so long. The U.S has a strategic interest in having a friendly government in Pakistan, as it shares a border with Afghanistan and has become the new front line for the war on terror. Sadly, where strategic interests are involved, promoting democracy and respecting sovereignty take a back seat.

The people of Pakistan have had to live with the consequences of America’s foreign policy, facing the ever present threat of bomb blasts and attacks by extremist organizations which see Pakistan as a proxy for the American government. More than 700 Pakistanis have been abducted by their own government’s intelligence organizations and the FBI. The fortunate ones get detained and tortured by the ISI (Pakistan’s version of the CIA) while the unluckier ones get sent off to Guantanamo and other secret U.S prisons where the Geneva Convention doesn’t apply and human rights magically cease to exist. No evidence or warrants are necessary, cash rewards offered by the U.S government for the arrest of suspected Al-Qaeda sympathizers are enough to circumvent any due process that may have existed in this once democratic country.

The government has played to the population’s anti-U.S sentiments by officially denouncing America’s slaughter of the people of Afghanistan, while secretly launching a military offensive against some of its own citizens in the Taliban sympathetic Northwest Frontier of Pakistan, because of U.S demands. These clashes were the result of mounting U.S pressure on Musharraf to deliver on their investment in diplomatic and monetary support. As a result, thousands of Pakistani citizens living in the tribal belt and at least 2000 Pakistani soldiers, by some unofficial estimates, lost their lives while fighting each other in order to satiate U.S demands.

The General, in order to stay in power has also had to take measures previously thought impossible. In order to garner support in the Sindh province, The MQM, an organization heavily involved in organized crime and held responsible for many incidents of terrorism in Karachi, was allowed control of the provincial government. Individual’s against whom active murder cases were pending, were allowed to take office and the MQM openly massacred any political opposition in the province resulting in massive bloodshed in Karachi on the 12^th of May 2007, that left more than 200 opposition political workers dead. All this happened under the watchful eye of government security personnel that refused to intervene.

Another consequence of America’s continued support for the “General President” has been the complete undermining of Pakistani institutions such as the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Earlier in the year, Musharraf “fired” a Supreme Court justice when he questioned the constitutional basis of him holding power. This caused massive upheaval in the country and the people of Pakistan rioted and rallied behind the deposed Chief justice until the government had to reinstate him. Many people, including lawyers, lost their lives in the riots, others were injured and maimed. Throughout all these events, the U.S never once officially condemned the draconic measures that Musharraf was taking in order to stay in power.

One can argue that America shouldn’t care about what happens in other countries, that it can write these things off as someone else’s domestic problem. If only that were the case, there would never be situations like the one that prevails in Pakistan today. In a country like Pakistan, burdened by debt and reliant on foreign Aid, the U.S has a lot of say in who takes power as it controls the purse strings for foreign aid and provides much needed military equipment and technology.

Any General taking power in Pakistan needs the blessings of Pakistan’s U.S masters, otherwise his regime would be overthrown by a more favorable candidate. This alone goes against promoting democracy, not to mention the heinous acts perpetrated by the puppet governments on behalf of the puppet masters in order to maintain the status quo. All the while the people, who are supposed to elect their own leaders, suffer under tyrants chosen by foreigners sitting half the world away who have no stake in their country’s destiny, only selfish short-term strategic interests.

This isn’t anything that the world hasn’t seen before. The Shah of Iran, The Saudi Royal family, Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan are a few other examples of the U.S putting strategic interests before its ideal of exporting democracy. The only difference between how Myanmar or Pakistan are perceived internationally is how vital they are to U.S interests, and that is injustice in a nutshell. One can only hope that the U.S wakes up from its self induced moral slumber and once more realizes its true role as a defender of democracy instead of an exporter of Tyranny.

A Failure to Communicate

There is a huge problem with government’s that operate on a different logical wavelength than their subjects, the problem obviously being that the government completely fails to understand the needs of the people it is supposed to be serving. Thus as you move across the spectrum from the liberal to the more authoritarian forms of rule you see this phenomenon of people serving the establishment rather than the other way round.

In a democracy the government is not supposed to preach to the people or impose laws that the majority of the people it rules, dislike. There is always due process, and laws are made by institutions like congress that are made up of representatives of the people.

Short circuiting that representation, such as in a theocracy, move’s us to a more oppressive system where laws and rules are imposed on people whether they like them or not.The logic behind this oppressive system being that if people live life in the way we believe is the right way, they will start to see the light and start to approve of our system. This is all well and good but it does give rise to a very obvious question, what if people don’t see things your way?

This ideological gap is apparent in most theocracies or partial theocracies. One excellent example of this is Iran and its battle to portray a public image that is both acceptable to the international community and also in accordance with its Islamic fundamentalist principles. It will suffice to say that Iran doesn’t always succeed in its tight rope walk to please both audiences. In a debate organized by Columbia University, President Ahmedinejad (in a very questionable manner I might add) was asked why homosexuals were persecuted in his country. His reply to the question, "we do not have homosexuals in Iran like you do in your country.” It isn’t the fact that Iran doesn’t have Homosexuals or that the president isn’t aware of them, its just that the ideological gap mentioned above is sadly apparent here.

Do the people of Iran not want there to be any homosexuals in their country? One cannot be certain about that in the absence of a poll or a referendum, but one does find it hard to believe that public opinion would require them to be treated as they are now. According to the religious hardliners in control, homosexuality is not allowed in Islam and thus it would not do to have the president of an Islamic country admit to having homosexuals in his constituency. Thus Homosexuality is treated like a crime in Iran, with people being jailed and/or executed if thought to be homosexuals. Gay Rights is just one in a plethora of issues that the public disagrees on with the government, but are silenced with accusations of opposing religious logic. But isn’t the whole purpose of having an organized government to give the people what they need? obviously not in theocracies like Iran. In such cases it is not the dog that wags the tail, but the tail that wags the dog.

SNL's reply to Ahmedinejad's official position