Did Bush Inattention Help Cause Pakistan’S Breakdown?

Has ‘growing Islamic extremism’ gripped Pakistan in part because Bush has all but forgotten our real war in nearby Afghanistan? Did Bush Inattention Help Cause Pakistan’s Breakdown?By Cliff Montgomery – Nov. 5th, 2007Pakistani police have clubbed, arrested and tear-gassed thousands of protesters understandably angry after the decision of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to enforce ’emergency rule’–a  martial law in all but name–in this troubled Muslim nation bordering Afghanistan.The general first seized power through a 1999 coup, and has long commanded Pakistan’s army.Agence France-Presse (AFP) has stated that Musharraf declared “growing Islamic extremism and hostile judges” as his reasons for directly oppressing this country of 160 million.Musharraf no doubt felt at least partly compelled to suspend Pakistan’s constitution on Saturday, because his country’s Supreme Court was about to rule on whether his Oct.6th re-election to the presidency was valid.But there’s no doubt that a “growing Islamic extremism” in Pakistan has reached crisis proportions–and it’s possible that Bush Administration inattention to this most important area in the Terror War has helped it to grow.This crisis has been building for a while. The matter was perhaps best captured in an August Congressional Research Service (CRS) report discussing Pakistan’s political chaos:”President General Pervez Musharraf at present faces the worst political crisis since the October 1999 military coup. His array of woes includes a spate of lethal attacks by Islamist militants and a deteriorating internal security situation; a breakdown of truces made with pro-Taliban militants and a resurgence of low-intensity warfare in the country’s tribal areas; an embarrassing reversal at the Supreme Court and a newly independent-minded judiciary; electoral pressures due to constitutionally-mandated polls later in 2007; simmering public anger; and plummeting approval ratings.”The CRS report also provides a good explanation of how Musharraf has dealt with the increasing problem of Islamist militants in Pakistan:”A U.S.-Pakistan relationship marked by periods of both cooperation and discord was transformed by the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, and the ensuing  enlistment of Pakistan as a key ally in U.S.-led counterterrorism efforts.”[But] Pakistan is identified as a base for terrorist groups and their supporters operating in Kashmir, India, and Afghanistan.”In 2003, Pakistan’s army began conducting unprecedented counterterrorism operations in the country’s western tribal areas. Islamabad later shifted to a strategy of negotiation with the region’s pro-Taliban militants (combined with longer-term economic and infrastructure development in the region), a tack that elicited scepticism in Western capitals and that appears to have failed in its central purposes.”This “strategy of negotiation” occurred after the Bush Administration began shifting primary U.S. resources and attention from the real war in Afghanistan to Bush’s fruitless nation-building of Iraq. We therefore must wonder how much of Musharraf’s failed shift was forced upon him by a powerful ally who was no longer doing all it could to hunt for pro-Taliban and pro-Al Qaeda forces in either Afghanistan or in Pakistan’s border areas.In any case, these shifts in both American and Pakistani policies appear to have greatly de-stabilized this nation.Though it didn’t make headlines in U.S. corporate news sources, violence escalated last week in Swat, a lofty valley in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan. There a fragile ceasefire ended after pro-Taliban fighters opened attacks on Pakistani targets.The militants conducted rocket attacks on both a Kabbal police post and the Frontier Reserve police camp in Saidu Sharif, that district’s capital. Pakistani forces counter-attacked on Oct. 31st, employing helicopter gunships on pro-Taliban militia hideouts.Musharraf had first deployed thousands of troops on Oct. 24th, in the hopes of regaining national control of almost 60 Pakistani villages from pro-Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah.Fazlullah, who spews Islamist tirades over his personal FM radio station, also has created a 4,000-strong private army called Shaheen Force, and has established his own court system in the region.His forces have banned all music, CD shops and Internet cafes in Swat. Fazlullah in fact set fire to 15 CD shops before Ramadan, Islam’s holy month–after paying each of the owners 2,000 dollars for their troubles.The Islamist cleric has gone so far as to change the names of locations he considers “un-Islamic”. Schools in Swat have been closed–with a special emphasis on closing those for girls. In August, a paramedical school principal was murdered by militants who exploded his vehicle after he defiantly continued teaching female students.The picturesque, one-million-strong Swat had been a top tourist destination before the Islamist brand of “justice” reared its ugly head there. Around 100 bomb blasts occurred in Swat through Ramadan alone.Such pro-Taliban groups have slithered into the NWFP from Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which soon became a Taliban safe haven after their forces in neighboring Afghanistan were nearly crushed by American-led troops during the end of 2001.But that was then, and this is now.Like what you’re reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of thee-newsletter for only $15? A major article covering an story not being told in the Corporate Press will be delivered to your email every Monday morning for a full year, for less than 30 cents an issue. Order Now!