Who Is Behind the Bombing in Islamabad?



"What we cannot escape," one Pentagon policy planner told us, "is a
confrontation with Pakistan. Pakistan holds the key to success for us
in Afghanistan."
Afghanistan: How Does This End?, Swoop, Sept 20, 2008

If one wants to make sense of the big bombing that hit the Marriott
hotel in Islamabad yesterday, one has to look at the bigger strategic
picture.

If you believe the usually 'western' media, the U.S. is still an ally
of Pakistan and India is still a neutral country. In reality the U.S.
and India are allied in a war against Pakistan and China.

Foreign policy elements in India and the in U.S. see China as their
respective big strategic enemy. But both want - for now - avoid an
open conflict. The center of gravity in this silent war against China
are the hydrocarbon reserves in Central Asia, the Middle East and
Africa and the transport routes for these.

The war in Afghanistan and the war in Pakistan can be seen as proxy
wars between these three big powers over the energy issue.

China is developing the port of Gwader in Baluchistan on the south
coast of Pakistan and transport routes from there into its mainland.
The port will allow energy flow from Africa and the Middle East to
China without Indian naval interference.

Just like China is in a strategic alliance with Pakistan, India is in
a strategic alliance with Afghanistan. It is developing a road
connection from Herat to a port in south Iran. While Pakistan supports
some Taliban groups in their war against the U.S. occupation of
Afghanistan, India and the U.S. support other Taliban groups within
Pakistan in fighting Islamabad.

The current aim seems to be to splinter Pakistan into smaller pieces.

Oh, that is not what the media say? The above is all baloney?

Attached is a collection of excerpts of recent news pieces and
strategic papers. Skim through them with the above in mind.

From the U.S.:

The Pashtuns, concentrated in the northwestern tribal areas, would
join with their ethnic brethren across the Afghan border (some 40
million of them combined) to form an independent “Pashtunistan.” The
Sindhis in the southeast, numbering 23 million, would unite with the
six million Baluch tribesmen in the southwest to establish a
federation along the Arabian Sea from India to Iran. “Pakistan” would
then be a nuclear-armed Punjabi rump state.
Drawn and Quartered, New York Times op-ed, Feb 1, 2008

From India:

If ever the national interests are defined with clarity and
prioritised, the foremost threat to the Union (and for centuries
before) materialised on the western periphery, continuously. To defend
this key threat to the Union, New Delhi should extend its influence
through export of both, soft and hard power towards Central Asia from
where invasions have been mounted over centuries. Cessation of
Pakistan as a state facilitates furtherance of this pivotal national
objective.
.....
With China’s one arm, i.e. Pakistan disabled, its expansionist plans
will receive a severe jolt. Beijing continues to pose primary threat
to New Delhi. Even as we continue to engage with it as constructively
as possible, we must strive to remove the proxy. At the same time, it
is prudent to extend moral support to the people of Tibet to sink
Chinese expansionism in the morass of insurgency.
Stable Pakistan not in India’s interest, Indian Defence Review, Sept.
2008

From Pakistan:

Pakistani policy analysts are convinced that United States has been a
duplicitous ally during the past seven years, using the sincere
Pakistani cooperation on Afghanistan to gradually turn that country
into a military base to launch a sophisticated psychological,
intelligence and military campaign to destabilize Pakistan itself.

The objective is to weaken the control of the Pakistani military over
geographical Pakistan and ignite an ethnic and sectarian civil war
leading to changing the status of Balochistan and NWFP, possibly even
facilitate the break up of both provinces from the Pakistani
federation.
Pakistan Reverses 9/11 Appeasement, Ahmed Quraishi, Sept 13, 2008

Various sources:

Mere rhetorical response to the mounting American gangsterism is no
answer, when this adventurism has very deeper diabolical motivations
to it.
.....
It is for the failure of the retired general, who loved playing a
slave to American warlords, to demand this action from the coalition
forces in Afghanistan that our tribal region has become the lair of
foreign-sponsored militants, who on the bidding of their masters have
turned our once-peaceful tribal belt into a violent place and the rest
of our country their killing field.
Mullen’s betrayal, The Frontier Post, Peshawar, Editorial, Sept 19,
2008

India is buying armaments that major powers like the United States use
to operate far from home: aircraft carriers, giant C-130J transport
planes and airborne refueling tankers. Meanwhile, India has helped to
build a small air base in Tajikistan that it will share with its host
country. It is modern India’s first military outpost on foreign soil.
.....
“There seems to be an emerging long-term competition between India and
China for pre-eminence in the region,” said Jacqueline Newmyer,
president of the Long Term Strategy Group, a research institute in
Cambridge, Mass., and a security consultant to the United States
government. “India is preparing slowly to claim its place as a pre-
eminent power, and in the meantime China is working to complicate that
for India.”
Land of Gandhi Asserts Itself as Global Military Power, NYT, Sept. 22,
2008

Armed with a permit for global nuclear trade, India's prime minister
leaves next week for the United States and France hoping to seal
atomic energy deals and discuss cooperation in defense and counter-
terrorism.
Atomic trade high on India PM's U.S., France tour, Reuters, Sept. 19,
2008

Senior Chinese military official Guo Boxiong pledged on Monday to
further strengthen military exchanges between China and Pakistan.

In his meeting with Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq PervezKiyani,
Guo, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, appreciated the
fruitful cooperation between both sides over the years.
.....
China highly values its all-round strategic cooperative partnership
with Pakistan, Guo said, vowing to join hands with the country to
boost bilateral ties to a new level.

In response, Kiyani said his country treasures its traditional
friendship with China and is ready to further boost cooperation with
China.
China eyes closer military exchanges with Pakistan, Xinhua, Sept. 22,
2008

Taliban insurgents have attacked an Indian construction project in the
western Afghan province of Herat, killing 11 Afghan policemen and
wounding several others on a weekend that saw most fighters lay down
their weapons for U..N. Peace Day.
Indian construction project targeted by Taliban, Globe and Mail, Sept.
21, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Two local intelligence officials say troops and
tribesmen opened fire when two U.S. helicopters crossed into Pakistan
from Afghanistan.
Intel officials: US copters cross Pakistan border, Reuters, Sept. 22,
2008

Pakistani military forces flew repeated helicopter missions into
Afghanistan to resupply the Taliban during a fierce battle in June
2007, according to a U.S. Marine lieutenant colonel, who says his
information is based on multiple U.S. and Afghan intelligence
reports.
U.S. Officer: Pakistani Forces Aided Taliban, Defense News, Sept. 19,
2008

This U.S. media campaign has been going hand in glove for the past
eighteen months with a wave of terrorism inside Pakistan targeting
Pakistani civilians and government. The blame for these acts was laid
at the doors of something called ‘Pakistani Taliban’ which is, in
major part, a creation of Indian and Karzai intelligence setups inside
Afghanistan.
.....
But the situation between Islamabad and Washington does not have to
come to this. Islamabad can help tip the scales in Washington against
the hawks who want a war with Pakistan. Not all parts of the U.S.
government accept this idea and this must be exploited. Pakistan must
make it clear that it will retaliate.
.....
The only way to entrap Pakistan now is to either orchestrate a
spectacular terrorist attack in U.S. and blame it on Pakistan, or to
assassinate a high profile personality inside Pakistan and generate
domestic strife that will make it impossible for the military to
resist U.S. attacks.
Pakistan Reverses 9/11 Appeasement, Ahmed Quraishi, Sept 13, 2008

So:

Who could be/is responsible for yesterday's big bomb in Islamabad?
May China have, beside Taiwan, additional conditions for the big
bailout that relate with Pakistan?

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2008/09/who-is-behind-t.html#more


M. Javed Iqbal
.

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