by myron myron on Sun Jul 22, 2007 3:13 am
There is no question Musharraf is a dictator. The question is whether he is a lesser evil than a militant Muslim fundamentalist theocracy armed with nuclear weapons, which is what Pakistan will likely become after Musharraf is gone -- whenever and however that may occur.
Even under Musharraf today, Pakistan is the epicenter of militant Islamist extremism. This has come about relatively recently, within the last 30 years or so. And America had a hand in it.
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and occupied large parts of the country until 1989. The Soviets initially overwhelmed the ragtag Afghan guerilla insurgency, taking the major Afghan cities and forcing the insurgents into hiding in the mountains. These early successes were due to a combination of Soviet air superiority and internecine warfare among the various tribes and clans that comprise Afghanistan.
The Soviets employed the "divide and conquer" tactic with great success, playing off one tribe against another and instigating tribal wars. The Afghan tribes could not put aside their historic hostilities; they could not unify to defend their land against the Soviet invaders.
The United States did not have sufficient national security interests in Afghanistan to justify direct military intervention. Nonetheless, the Americans did have an interest in preventing another "domino" from falling to the Soviet yoke.
The various Afghan tribes had one thing in common: they were all Muslim (albeit not very devout). The Soviet invaders were avowed atheists. The Americans concluded that Islam was the glue to unify and bring cohesion to the Afghan resistance.
Through the CIA, America began actively supporting (i.e., organizing, training and equipping) what were then called mujaheddin (religious warriors).
To create more mujaheddin, the Americans enlisted Saudi Arabia to finance construction of hundreds of Muslim religious schools called madressas in Pakistan, Afghanistan's next door neighbor.
The Saudi ruling dynasty follow Wahhabism, a fundamentalist, reactionary form of Islam which has a miltant offshoot called Salafism. The Saudis have always sought to expand and disseminate Wahhabism. To run the Pakistani madressas they financed, the Saudis installed Wahhabist/Salafist clerics.
Framing the Afghan insurgency against the Soviets as a jihad (Muslim holy war against infidels) not only unified the warring Afghan tribes but also attracted substantial numbers of Muslims from other countries, who volunteered to defend their Muslim brothers against the atheist Soviet infidels.
The CIA supplied the mujaheddin with shoulder-fired Stinger missiles that devastated Soviet attack and supply helicopters and low-flying planes. Mujaheddin guerillas, supplies and weapons were filtered into Afghanistan from Pakistan. The border city of Peshawar, Pakistan, became a well-known hub of anti-Soviet activity where weapons systems were openly bought and sold in bazaar-like fashion. Throughout this period, the madressas were churning out militant, young Wahhabist/Salafist mujaheddin.
The American plan was a resounding success. The mujaheddin guerilla insurgency transformed a Soviet rout into a protracted bloody guerrilla war with no end in sight. By late 1988 to early 1989, the combination of mujaheddin zeal and American Stingers and other military assistance had toppled the Soviet puppet government in the Afghan capital Kabul. Defeated and demoralized, the Soviets withdrew their troops from Afghanistan.
During the 1990's, the Pakistani madressas continued to create militant Wahhabist/Salafist extremists. But the new madressa graduates were no longer taught to hate and kill Russians. Instead, the targets of their murderous rage were now Israel and Israel's morally corrupt, decadent patron America.
After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States foolishly turned its attention away from the entire region. The Americans forgot about the madressa network they had a hand in creating. This monumental American blunder had disastrous consequences -- including but not limited to 9/11. Al Qaeda are Salafists.
Many of the Islamist fundamentalists presently fighting the Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq graduated from Pakistani madressas or studied under madressa graduates.
In sum, although it was an unintended consequence of defeating the Soviets in Afghanistan, the United States had a hand in turning Pakistan into the epicenter of militant Islamist extremism espoused by suicide terrorists throughout the world today.
