First, on January 5, came US President Donald Trump’s warning Pakistan that it was not doing enough against terrorism, followed by a US$2 billion cut in aid. Then there followed a series of terror attacks in Afghanistan.
On January 20, gunmen attacked the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, leaving 40 people dead and more than 22 others injured, and on January 27, suicide bombers blew up an explosives-packed ambulance near an Interior Ministry building, which killed at least 103 and injured more than 200 people. Interestingly, that area houses offices of the European Union and High Peace Council in a busy and heavily guarded street in Kabul.
Some points to ponder. How did the attackers manage to drive an ambulance laden with explosives past a police checkpoint into that street without being detected? A British Broadcasting Corp correspondent at the scene reported that it was not easy to get through the police checkpoints since all vehicles are searched and drivers’ identities are checked.
The statement of Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesman for the Interior Ministry, was ridiculous when he said the attacker got through a security checkpoint after telling the police he was taking a patient to nearby Jamhuriat Hospital. Doesn’t it seem like the drama of a third-grade Bollywood movie?
It does not require any deep thinking to understand that there have been gross intelligence and security failures in Afghanistan lately. But who is responsible for intelligence and security in the country?
We need to remember how the US intelligence services instigated and abetted right-wing terrorism in Italy in late 1969 in the bombing of National Agrarian Bank in Milan’s Piazza Fontana. General Gianadelio Maletti, a former head of Italian military counterintelligence, reportedly discovered during the trial following the attack that a right-wing terrorist cell in the Venice region had been supplied with military explosives from Germany, which were obtained with the help of members of the US intelligence community.
A total of 17 people were killed and 88 injured in the Piazza Fontana bombing. In 1998, Milan Judge Guido Salvini indicted US Navy officer David Carrett on charges of political and military espionage for the Piazza Fontana bombing. There were others accused in the bombing – Sergio Minetto, an Italian official of the US-NATO intelligence network, and Carlo Digilio, who served as the CIA coordinator in Northeastern Italy in the 1960s and 1970s.
On April 11, 1955, a chartered Air India Constellation passenger airliner, the Kashmir Princess, was bombed in the air and crashed into the South China Sea while en route from Bombay to Jakarta, in which 16 people were killed. The explosion was intended to assassinate Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, but he had changed his travel plans.
The time-bomb was the handiwork of a Kuomintang secret agent. In reaction, China’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement describing the bombing as “murder by the special service organizations of the US and Chiang Kai-shek.”
In a 1971 face-to-face meeting in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Zhou directly asked Henry Kissinger about US involvement in the bombing. Kissinger responded, “As I told the prime minister the last time, he vastly overestimates the competence of the CIA.”
Fast-forward to 2018. The January 27 Kabul attack was precisely planned to be near the offices of the EU and High Peace Council, yet members of the European delegation were in their “safe room” and there were no casualties. Reports quickly poured in that the Taliban had claimed responsibility.
The distance between the US and Pakistan seems to have widened, not only giving the Trump administration reason for going on the offensive against Pakistan but also finding place to hide its failure in the ‘war against terror,’ which has dragged on for 17 years without any end in sight
Then the Afghan government came to the rescue of President Trump when it conjectured that the Haqqani group had carried out the attack with support from Pakistan, since both are on the United States’ latest blacklist, one for being terror group and the other for supporting it.
Though the truth perhaps will never be out in the open, the distance between the US and Pakistan seems to have widened, not only giving the Trump administration reason for going on the offensive against Pakistan but also finding place to hide its failure in the “war against terror,” which has dragged on for 17 years without any end in sight.
Afghanistan has become a killing field ever since the US invaded the country on October 7, 2001. The war in Afghanistan has raped the country. Each day human lives are being destroyed, in addition to escalating violence assassinations, bombings, and night raids into houses of suspected insurgents. The Irish documentary Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death shows the mass graves of thousands of victims as found by UN investigators, and how the US blocked investigations into such incidents.
In the ghastly terror attacks of September 11, 2001, some 3,000 people lost their lives and many more were injured. President George W Bush’s reference at the time to a “crusade” against terrorism raised apprehension of a “clash of civilizations” between Christians and Muslims. The US Congress passed legislation titled Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, which was signed on September 18, 2001, by Bush. The United Nations Security Council did not authorize the US-led military campaign.
Whether in the guise of war against terror the US and its allies are what Bush called “crusade” against Muslims, and, instead of ending it, state powers are busy in escalating to various parts of the world. David Cole and Jules Lobel, in their 2007 book Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror, criticize Bush and his vice-president, Dick Cheney, for their “counterterrorism strategy” at face value, claiming that this strategy has been a “colossal failure.”
In their 2008 article “There Is No ‘War on Terror’,” Edward S Herman and David Peterson argued: “Given the illegality and immorality of this war – now already well into its seventh year – the killing of people in Afghanistan cannot be regarded as ‘legitimate.’”
out of their mismanagement of their country they have the same old alibi blaming the U.S. being an ally of israel.
The author has renarrated typical Pakistani military propaganda of the failure of the Afghan and US security agencies in the wake of every and each terrorist attack Pakistani terrorist. The author holds Afghan and US government for failure in preventing the attack, but never dares to mention the country and the state that gave the suicide bomber an extremist mindset and provided training and bombs to attack. This state is Pakistan. I will agree with the author for failure of the Afghan and US security institutions, but the author has also to agree with me, if I call Pakistan a terrorist state. Can the author tell me if Pakistan is not the producer, sponsor and supporter of terrorism, then could he please tell me about the presence of Osama in Pakistan and his killing in Military fort deep in mainland Pakistan, Taliban leaders Mullah Omar and Mansoor were also killed in Pakistan. Former Pakistani, President Musharaf and Foreign Affairs Minister has publilcly admitted of supporting religious extremism and militant Islam apparently on the pretence of installing pro-Pakistan government and countering Indian influence in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, to counter international pressure over support for extremist Taliban and terrorism in Afghanistan and decieve the world with its narrative of victimhood and making of enormous sacrifices cliches, , Pakistan started radicalizing Pakhtun Youth and population in Pakistani occupied Pakhtun areas in order to make its propaganda of victimhood more credible and portray Pakhtun population as inherently extremist and gun-loving and later on, attacking Pakhtuns cities and towns on the pretence of uprooting the very same terrorists that Pakistan security agencies imposed on Pakhtun communities after killing of thousands of tribal elders in Pakhtunkhwa. However, in reality, on the pretences of crushing Taliban in the Tribal areas and to fabricate proofs for approving expenditures from the US, Pakistani military executed false and cosmetics operations, leaving Afghanistan focused Taliban known as good Taliban untouched, but killed ordinary Pakhtuns, including children and women in indiscriminate bombardment of towns and villages turning them into the ruins. However, the recent uprising of Pakhtuns against the state-terrorism and repression by Pakistan, has exposed the lies of Pakistani state that falsely portrayed Pakhtuns tribals as barbarians who can only speak the language of the gun. By organizing a peaceful protest and march, Pakhtuns showed to the world that contrary to the thier depiction on the part of Pakistan, they are well aware of the manners and norms of protesting in civilized manner and instead of using gun for resolution of disputes and issues, prefer dialogue and peaceful protest. In the past decade, Pakistani military operations have resulted in the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, detaining of thousand of youth in Pakthun areas and other Pakistani cities whose whereabouts are still unknown, and displacing millions of Pakhuns from the native areas where they resided since times immemorial. it is a common saying in Pakhtun areas in Pakistan that Army soldeirs act as soldier during the daytime, while become Taliban once the darkness of night decsends on Pakhtun areas. it is in this context that the recent uprising of Pakhtuns should be seen in Pakistan. Pakhtuns understands and know who is their killer and why they are killed.Until now, only this consious was missing from Pakhtun mind, now when they have braved to protest, Pakistan could not contain or keep Pakhtuns under its rule. Facing persectution and killing at the hands of both Pakistani military and their proxy Taliban, Pakhtuns in Pakistan are left with no other option but to standup to extremist religious narrative and terrorism advanced by Pakistani state and counter them. Pakistan could not longer decieve Pakhtuns through their proxies mullahs and missionary Jihadi organization.
You seem to be from pakhtuns to be knowledgeable of those events…whatever peaceful ending could not be expected very soon it seems