This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Author: Rudra Devacharya
Continued from Part 2
And finally, on Sept 11 2001, Osama masterminds the attack on Washington DC and New York City that makes him a household name.
15) The rest is recent history which we know very well.
The Americans launch Operation Enduring Freedom, ousting the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, and replacing them with Karzai. The Pak army/ISI chooses to bend over to the Americans. Their betrayal of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda has lasting consequences. One by one, the Deobandi groups nurtured by the ISI go over to OBL's side. Wahhabandism (alliance of Wahab Islam and Deobandi Islamic schools) becomes a sociopolitical force unto itself, and eventually the Tehrik-e-Taliban-Pakistan (TTP) is born.
This is exactly the opposite effect of what the Pakistanis had hoped to achieve by inviting OBL to Afghanistan. They had hoped that they could influence OBL to turn his attention away from the West and KSA, and towards India in J&K.
Instead, OBL has turned Pakistan's own proxies (created to wage jihad in J&K) against the US and against Pakistan itself! In effect, forces that were committed to the J&K jihad are now more committed to fighting the Americans in Afghanistan!
Besides this, the generous sources of funding which OBL used to bring into Afghanistan (and of which, some must have been siphoned off by ISI to use against India) quickly dry up under American pressure against the financial conduits. So even that fringe benefit of OBL's presence, quickly disappears for the ISI.
Net gain for India, any way you look at it, compared to the 1990s.
In 2008, the ISI and LeT launch 26/11 against Mumbai in a desperate attempt to force military action by India, hoping that the various tanzeems fighting in Pakistan will unify under Paki-army as a result. It doesn't happen.
It is unfounded to imagine that OBL played any significant role in J&K jihad, alongside the Paki-Army/ISI who betrayed him by bending over to the Americans. Why would he, when wars far more important to him were going on in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Yemen? Why would he, when J&K had never been a matter of consequence to him in the first place?
BUT BUT BUT... if Pakistan AGREED to let the US snatch OBL, why did they not bargain for a more Honour and Dignity (H&D)-saving facade? Why did they not insist that OBL be "found in the border regions of Afghanistan" rather than the very embarrassing location of Abbotabad? Why did they not angle for more recognition of their cooperative role so that they could get generous baksheesh in reward from the US Congress? Why did they submit to a raid that makes them look so very bad, in terms of H&D, and in terms of casting suspicion on their role in harbouring OBL all these years? Why did they let SEALS cart away incriminating evidence from the location instead of delivering Bin Laden to the Americans on their own terms?
There is only one possible answer: the Pakis may have agreed to let the US snatch OBL on such humiliating terms because the only alternative available to the Pakis was WORSE. Uncle Sam has something so damaging to the Pakis, that he was able to threaten them with it, and dictate the terms of how the OBL raid was going to go or else....
What is that "WORSE" thing? I don't know.
There is a suspicion that it might revolve around two trials currently taking place in the US, though. The trial of Tawwahur Hussein Rana in Chicago; and the trial in NY where the families of American 26/11 victims are suing the Pakistan Army and ISI. Things which could have come out in those trials and become public information, may have been even more damaging to Pakistan than the mere fact of OBL hiding in Abbotabad all these years.
20) For India... Well for the last 20 years, we have faced jihad alone. We will face it alone for the next 20.
USA/Al-Qaeda squabbles don't matter to us; USA-Pakistan lovefest doesn't matter to us; Pakistan-China double teaming doesn't matter to us.
We have survived the connivance of all these parties under much worse circumstances, when we were much weaker. With the wisdom of our ancestors, the courage of our people, and the virtuous sword arm of Dharma on our side we shall continue to survive it until we prevail.
Jai Hind!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
