November 12, 2007 (the date of publication in Russian)
Alexander Rudakov
HOMAGE TO BE PAID WITH BLOOD?
Washington demands new human sacrifice from Germany in Afghanistan
The bloody trail of episodes, including the foundation of the Taliban Movement in Afghanistan, the emergence of the international terrorist network known as Al Qaeda, and the tragedy of 9/11, dates back to the events of June 2007, when US intelligence services instigated a coup d'etat in Islamabad. Today's events in Pakistan, blowing off the lid from the boiling pot of desperate Islamic radicalism in a nuclear power, remind of this extremely cynical geopolitical operation, blatantly contradicting to Washington's official policy line.
Thirty years ago, the ideologues of global dissemination of democracy ruthlessly demolished the well-functioning European-type political system of Pakistan. The legitimate head of state, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was captured and sentenced to death on fabricated charges. The conspiracy resulted in a brutal military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq, who had been twice trained in the United States (in 1959 and 1962), establishing close connections with the CIA.
The dictatorial regime in Islamabad was later used as an efficient lever of political manipulation across Asia. It served for several strategic purposes: first of all, for reducing Soviet influence in Asia; secondly, since 1979, for exploiting the radical Islamic sentiment for building up an artificial alternative to the Khomeinist regime in Iran; thirdly and most significantly, Zia-ul-Haq’s regime was instrumental for using the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan as a training center of dozens of thousands of Mujahideen from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and even Palestine, in order to re-orient them from political activities in their native countries to a jihad against the USSR. Simultaneously, US strategists sought to localize the Iranian revolutionary impulse, exploiting Saddam Hussein's regime as an additional lever of pressure.
In 1991, Pakistan's special services assisted in establishing the Taliban Movement to establish more efficient control of Afghanistan. Ten years later, the same services obediently followed the new orders from Washington, sacrificing their own baby in its cradle.
This betrayal of Taliban marked the beginning of the problems of Pakistan's dictators. Hamid Karzai, ejected to Kabul to establish a new political order, was reluctant to cooperate with Northern Alliance, dominated by the Tajik minority under the command of General Mohammad Qasim Fahim. Instead, the new Afghani leadership teamed up with Pashtuni nationalists, thus contributing to political destabilization in the Pashtun-dominated North-Western Pakistan. Naturally, the relations between Hamid Karzai and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf acquired a shape of a mutual boycott, and all the attempts of Washington to conciliate the two leaders turned a failure.
In summer 2007, the ostensibly exterminated Taliban Movement resumed its terrorist activities in Afghanistan. In their turn, Pakistan's radical Islamists, infuriated with the massacre in the Red Mosque, challenged Musharraf's military forces. Failing to get legitimately re-elected in October (the vote being contested by the Supreme Court), Musharraf unsuccessfully tried to strike a deal with Benazir Bhutto, the leader of the secular opposition and the daughter of the 1977-executed Prime Minister. Eventually, Musharraf was forced to introduce martial law and undertake preventive arrests of oppositionist leaders, undermining his reputation among the population and simultaneously dismantling the democratic decorations of his rule, which started in 1999 through a new coup d'etat. His decision to enforce house arrest on Mrs. Bhutto added parallels to the "rogue" regime of Myanmar, where the leader of opposition (by the way, also a daughter of a general) is kept under house arrest for seventeen years.
In order to meet Washington's demands and keep his country under control, General Musharraf should follow the pattern of his brutal predecessor, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. However, the President is not eager to impose a brutal dictatorial rule. Therefore, Washington is seeking for an alternative figure from the military community. US strategists fear that a part of Pakistan's military may team up with radical Islamist groups, or address Beijing for political support. Both options are unacceptable for Washington.
Meanwhile, the capital of Afghanistan is shaken with a series of extraordinarily brutal terrorist actions. Analysts, who predicted a "second Iraq" in the heart of Central Asia, were obviously correct in their unheard warnings.
In this critical situation, Washington is trying to force other Western nations to share both political and military responsibility for the development in Afghanistan. Washington and London have lately increased pressure upon Germany, demanding activation of its military operations in Afghanistan. The recent article in New York Times, entitled "The Time of Bundesmacht", is quite illustrative. The authors provocatively ridicule today's Bundeswehr, and explicitly urge Berlin to revive the traditions of Hitler's Wehrmacht. Berlin's compliance with UN's mandate, as well as the view of the German government that view that in this war-torn region, it is more important to build schools than to kill Talibs, is also ridiculed.
NYT's authors explicitly blame Germany for the very fact that its casualties don't exceed twenty soldiers, this number being 22 times smaller than the US toll. "The dangerous situation of today requires more commitment for military expenses and more willingness to sacrifice", the US authors are teaching Germany.
In other words, the United States demands "homage of blood" from its allies in Asia. In a similar way, the Ottoman Empire required human toll from the conquered Christian nations. Germany's huge war expenses, as well as its tolerance to the presence of American and British troops on its territory, is not enough for Washington. Essentially, the United States demand that its NATO allies pay for its own adventurous policy, dating back to the coup d'etat of June 1977, not only with political obedience but also with human lives.
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