The most striking statement that stayed with me after 9/11 was a press conference by the then defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Leaning forward on the podium with a glint in his eye he told the world how Joyce, his beloved wife, would ask each morn: “Darling where’s Osama?” Over the years, OBL got fogged out and rarely did Pakistan’s name come up in this connection. Even if there were some mumblings, they got rebuffed before ballooning into a loud voice. Don’t forget, we could do no wrong because Gen Musharraf and Bush were “tight” as the latter declared while putting his arm around our president in New York.
Ten years later, it’s a different ball game. We are once again in the spotlight but this time for all the awful reasons. The damage to Pakistan’s image is hard to measure at the moment. From where I sit, it seems irreparable. It is therefore all the more galling for me to see how thick skinned our rulers can be. They appear to be living on another planet. So busy are they bartering away ministries. Why then are we surprised when the world views us more like a banana republic?
I have a new announcement: the birth of a cottage industry on Osama. As American writers run to the publishers to get their books hot off the press before Osama becomes history, we are witnessing an unprecedented wave of interest in ‘A-buta-bad’ and the “bad boy Pakistan” (poor James Abbott, the Brit after whom the town got named must turn in his grave hearing Americans, including Obama, mangle his name). Digital titles, essay collections, and insta-books will be in bookstores before you read this column! You know, in America, fads are born and die each day. So, I can’t vouch how long Pakistan will remain on the radar screens of America. Let’s hope it’s brief.
Some soul searching may help salve our wounded pride. It was the summer of 2007 that Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari came to Washington because the Americans wanted “another phone number to call” in Islamabad, meaning that Bush was becoming wary of his “tight” buddy Musharraf and wanted Benazir to be in the PM House so that she could keep an eye on her wily president. Bush may have suspected the army chief/president getting greedy for more American aid in the form of hardware for the Pakistani military and some ‘loose change’ for his chosen generals.
Remember the leaks in the leading US media then? The White House, State Department and Pentagon were fuming over the $10 billion aid that Musharraf could not account for? The GHQ and the presidency were accused of cooking the books. Denials, denials and more denials ricocheted from Islamabad. In Washington, Bush had already become a lame duck president. The Iraq war had sapped America. And Afghanistan was the Frankenstein that US had created but could not control.
The Americans with the blessings of Benazir Bhutto, Gen Musharraf and Gen Kayani (then ISI chief) drafted the NRO that would allow Benazir to return to Pakistan and contest the general elections slotted for early 2008. Aid money was to pour in undisturbed. All seemed to work out except that no one had a Plan B in case Benazir was eliminated. With her assassination, new actors entered the theatre of power. Terrorism and the religious right gained strength. They displayed their might by sending in suicide bombers to strike anywhere, anytime and any place of their choosing.
Pakistanis — ordinary souls, suffered terrorism, long hours of load shedding, poverty and hunger. The country’s engines spluttered as IMF administered first aid to keep the corrupt rulers from going under. Billed as the fourth most populous country in the years ahead, Pakistan is now dubbed a hub of terrorism, where the majority of young will have no future but to become suicide bombers in line with the Taliban philosophy.
The Zardari government, apart from earning ridicule has hopelessly failed to impress the world on the terrible blow terrorism has dealt the country over the last three years. President Obama, Madam Hilary and all others have mentioned the names of countries where al-Qaeda has struck. Pakistan is missing from that list. Why? Not a word from the lips of these people on the number of deaths and the material damage that al-Qaeda and its affiliates have dealt Pakistan. It’s all about perception!
There is a serious disconnect. I would call it a colossal failure of our diplomacy. Our envoys abroad have hopelessly failed in educating their host countries in the real fear that Pakistanis live each day. Even our president, prime minister and his horde of ravenous ministers who play host to the visiting American senators and military high-ups turning up in Islamabad have miserably failed to convince them that we are the real victims of terror.
Perhaps we need to reeducate the Obama administration, the American media and power engines here in Washington about the facts and figures on al-Qaeda’s terrorist attacks in Pakistan each week. No city has been spared. Osama must have had a big laugh watching the pantomime from his pad in Abbottabad these past years, seeing the Americans sit meekly before Zardari holding court like a king!
Nobody is questioning the intelligence failure in Washington. Okay if Pakistan failed to smoke out Osama, what about the Americans? They spend billions of dollars on intelligence each year. Why then did it take them ten long years to catch Osama?
Do you know who the real losers are post bin Laden? No, not Zardari; no, not Kayani; no, not Gilani. It’s the image of Pakistan that has been dealt a severe blow. It’s being called a country of 180 million “freeloaders” who have eaten up $18 billion worth of American aid and in turn “bit the hand that fed it,” therefore it’s a country comprising cheats, frauds and double-dealers. The army has been “infiltrated” by extremists who have formed “honeycombs” inside this powerful institution. Blasphemer Salman Rushdie, like the Indians, is rushing to judgment, urging America to declare us a “terrorist state.”
The Pakistan press is once again been left out of the loop. It is being ignored by our rulers. They like pandering to the foreign press: according to Wall Street Journal, New Delhi TV’s Barkha Dutt was desperate to get a visa to come to Pakistan. So she twittered her frustration. Prompt came Rahman Malik’s response. Hallelujah! The lady was in Abbottabad. Says who that our rulers don’t tweet or use the Facebook? Our generals may not but Malik is a compulsive tweeter.
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