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Friday 21 February 2014

HUNTING FRANKENSTEIN II - The Way To Go Forward.........

The Pakistani ruling politicians are finally forced to speak up against the Pakistani militants they are inherently afraid of, in particular the Talibans. For them, it is about the politics of the Nawaz Sharif administration's spearheaded peace talks supported by the various political parties like Imran Khan's PTI and the fundamentalist Jammat e Islami. The war of words continue amidst the blowing limbs of the Pakistani population in a wave of terror unleashed by the Talibans in order to attain political leverage. Many such incidents are facilitated by vested domestic and international interests not in favour of any peace accord with Talibans. The Pakistani Security Forces are silently, but precisely taking on the terrorists of Taliban and Al-Qaeeda with smart surgical aerial strikes based upon deliberate and confirmed human intelligence avoiding the collateral damage, hence the political baggage associated with it. The US drone strikes are on sharp decline, as the active role is now being taken over by those, who should have been doing it originally. The credit here is due to the Pakistani military and civilian leadership for taking up responsibility where it was long due. However, this conflict is far beyond the art and science of warfare. This war is being fought in a scenario, which is highly complex and not at all just another lesson from military history. The canvas of this war is spread over combat, social, political and most of all economic background.

Let us state and analyze couple of hidden facts from the outset :-

 For any insurgent movement to be run continuously, irrespective of strong "ideological mercenaries" availability, material support in the form of logistics and hard cash is critical. To maintain a smooth cash flow, the Taliban not only rely upon the foreign sources sympathetic to their cause (for reasons of their own), but also maintain a strong business racket being operated from Pakistan and UAE. This racket is run by mostly Mehsud and also by few other tribesmen of the Pakistani North West tribal belt. The operation is spread over a vast geographical Land and sea route starting from Central Asian Republic, Afghanistan, Pakistani port city of Karachi, Dubai and the middle east. The businesses ranges a wide variety of trades and control of smuggling routes. The trade varies from Chinese electronics to weapons  and wheat/food to narcotics. Everything goes as long as the revenues are being generated. The stakes are too high, and the game is too lucrative to be left out. The Taliban command hierarchy gets paid ten times more than any General of a modern Army.

 This financial empire is the biggest underworld organized crime cartel of central and south Asia. This business supports the terror network of the Taliban only in part, with the real buck going in the pockets of those who are controlling and exploiting this game. Just this much is usual under the circumstances, but the use of Ideological mercenaries easily available from now second generation of Cold War Era US-Pakistani trained and equipped Jihadis,  makes this game bloody and tragic. Keep the violence going, is the only way to keep the money flowing for the Taliban King Pins. That is not much of a trouble for them under the comfortable situation they have got there.

To defeat the Taliban or force a surrender, it is critical to check and seize this international criminal business empire. An alternative source of income for the divided tribes living at Afghan_Pakistan border is the only way to control and cease the Taliban manpower resources.  The Pakistani security forces have taken up huge financial uplift projects in the tribal belt of Pakistan. However, the lack of funds and the absence of highest level government support along with lack of good governance in the tribal areas makes it an impossible task to achieve by the Pakistani government alone.

An international effort spearheaded by governmental agencies of the US, Pakistan, Afghanistan and UAE with the support of Indian and Chinese government can bring about a mechanism to put an end to this mega mafia of Taliban. No particular effort in this regard has so far been initiated as the intelligence agencies of these same countries, in particular, the American CIA uses the same business network to move their own illegitimate business operations to either generate revenues for black ops or to look after the vested interests of select few. The CIA supported the biggest drug trafficking operations around the globe historically to gain intelligence and hold influence wherever the Global US Empire is involved on ground. At Afghanistan, they are known to have provided information, logistics support and protection to the key Jihadi leaders and war lords since the Cold War Era to run their respective drug trafficking operations. In recent times,most interestingly the protection money for the ISAF/US logistics safe arrival via land routes in the land locked Afghanistan is being paid till date to the Taliban leadership. Even than the latter loot and plunder the logistics convoys and bomb the fuel tankers at will to raise their price and nuisance whenever required.

To resolve the menace of terrorism, which is fast becoming a global phenomenon, originating from the Af-Pak borders, a mechanism as suggested above backed by serious will of the international players involved is in the long term interest of all the stake holders alike. Pakistani security forces are already doing their bid by conducting precision strikes to take on the Taliban and Al-Qaeeda militants right in their home grounds after years of appeasement policy. The Onus must be shared, for the future peace and prosperity of this world we are now living in, which is greatly interdependent. This inter dependency continuous to grow with every passing year. Its just not good business for this madness to be allowed to continue. The monster being fed, will ultimately bite the hand which feeds it is the message for all those, supporting this monster...........................................................