OUR “PAKISTAN PROBLEM”

The USA has had a long-term relationship with the government of Pakistan based mostly on Cold War politics. The fear of Leninist style communism as practiced in the Soviet Union has skewed US foreign policy since the October revolution. Unlike Hitler and Mao whose revolutions left a huge portion of the oligarchy intact while superimposing their own autocracy, Lenin basically waged war on the old Russian oligarchy and inserted the Communist Party as the new ruling class with major realignment of the country's wealth. We initially supported Hitler's rise to power as a counterweight to the possibility of a Leninist style revolution in Germany. Although we needed Soviet help to defeat Hitler once the war ended the threat of the “international communist movement” was quickly resurrected.

We should note that much of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union had been waged using proxies. To this date Russia [previously Soviet Union] is the only country that shares a border who we have not openly engaged in combat. In a knee jerk fashion we have aligned ourselves with every foe of the Soviet Union or one of their presumed proxies. This meant a lot of military aid to a lot of abusive oligarchies. We entered Vietnam because Ho Chi Minh was a Soviet backed client. We entered Korea because we presumed an alignment between the Soviet Union and the Peoples' Republic of China. When the Chinese moved against India and the Soviet Union aided the Indian government we gravitated to the logical foe of India: Pakistan.

Pakistan is a country based on its religious differences with India. Shortly after its separation millions of Muslims living in India and millions of Hindus living in Pakistan relocated to more religion friendly neighborhoods. They have had many military coups and the governments installed by the military have imposed Sharia upon Pakistan and have provided military support to Islamic movements who favor Sharia.

Sharia is very similar to modern day Puritanism. It is an authoritarian paternalistic tribal system that focuses on submission to authority along with enforcement of personal mores involving consensual sex and recreational use of drugs – rather than actual moral principles. I am certain that the prophet Muhammed would regard Sharia as an abomination since he personally denounced the exact same system when he founded Islam. They differ from modern day Puritans in that they superimpose Muslim ritual instead of Christian ritual upon an authoritarian form of government. Adherents will go apoplectic over an Olympic female track athlete wearing shorts in public while going mute over abduction, abuse and killing of political dissidents [just like our Puritans in the USA]. It is just as easy to own the moral high ground over Sharia advocates as it is to own it against the typical small town preacher in the USA: they have absolutely no moral principles that are not trumped by submission to authority.

The people running the Reagan administration had absolutely no problem with sending aid to “Islamofascists” in Afghanistan with the help of Pakistan. After all they were kindred spirits to the religious conservatives who were a large portion of their own political base with exactly the same kinds of values and lack of actual moral principles. In fact many of the leaders of our religious right were praising the valor of Osama Bin Laden in his “quest to free Afghanistan from the oppression of godless communism”. Our tax dollars helped train Al Qaeda to more effectively combat “the evil empire” through the use of terrorist tactics.

There is much alarm being expressed by the media about the possibility of portions of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of Al Qaeda. What isn't mentioned is the fact that the leadership of the US facilitated the acquisition of these weapons as a counterweight to the Soviet influence in neighboring India. India easily adapted nuclear technology for energy into missile technology and Pakistan got its nuclear capability from our ally China via its proxy North Korea. It's just amazing how quickly nuclear technology can proliferate when you have proxies to deflect the blame!

Currently, Pakistan is not being run by its military and are not especially tied to the Sharia oriented Taliban. It seems that their proxy has ambitions that aren't limited to imposition of Sharia upon neighboring Afghanistan. These new ambitions toward control of Pakistan may have something to do with the military faction being voted out of office there. Martial law and unprincipled religious fervor seem to be a match made in the netherworld both in Christian and Islamic countries – which is why civilian control over the military is an essential component of democracy.

I have repeatedly suggested the establishment of an autonomous Pashtun tribal area where they can practice their amoral religious abomination known as Sharia. This would most likely involve having millions of people “voting with their feet” - as they did upon the liberation of India from Britain. This can be a useful “carrot” to waive in front of Taliban tribal leaders with the “stick” of prosecution and execution following a bloody “civil war”. This might involve billions in foreign aid to facilitate the necessary relocations. It would be less expensive than the trillions needed to eradicate most – but not all – armed Sharia advocates. Even with this aid and political settlement we will still have problems with Al Qaeda. After all we did train them well.