Prior to Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony as US President, he continuously called for the need to reinstate efforts into focusing on Afghanistan and Pakistan (or Af-Pak) in America’s War on Terror. Not surprisingly, since his coming to office, Obama has successfully managed to divert attention away from Iraq, which were it not for its regional surrogates, would have been another Vietnam. However Pakistan is now under the spotlight and apparently the new epicentre for global terrorism – in fact the 9/11 plot was hatched in Pakistan, according to Obama.

Pakistan continues to be heralded as a ‘failed state’ and has all the ingredients for violence and international terrorism, i.e. Islamic insurgency, a growing population that despises the presence of US bases in the region as well as a military possessing nuclear capability appears to echo Obama’s own words in relation to the situation becoming ‘increasingly perilous’. Therefore, the strategy instigated by the Obama camp appears perfectly feasible and viable in order to counter the growing threat of what the west calls ‘radicalisation’.

However, one will seldom find an honest debate regarding how the previous Bush Doctrine’s implementation of her policies and Musharraf’s subservience to US demands created a great amount of resentment towards the US and its colonial ambitions in the region, which naturally has led to, what is coined as, extremism. What has been generally agreed upon is that the Bush regime’s policies towards the region have not achieved any meaningful peace but have created more problems, mainly the rift between the army and civilian population as well as tension amongst the various regional and ethnic bodies. This civil strife sets the scenes for the Obama office to launch a ‘new’ strategy aimed at combating rogue elements within the country, particularly its non-state actors or the Mujahideen, that previously were backed, trained and supported by many nations during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

This new strategy utilises the expertise of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who is to serve as Special Representative for Af-Pak, and to work closely with General Petraeus of CENTCOM and his ability to combine military and civilian efforts. The documented strategy depicts the following points:

• The deployment of 17,000 troops to fight the Taliban in the south and east.
• Calls for 4,000 additional troops to focus on training Afghanistan’s army and police forces
• Calls for several hundred government and development experts aimed at improving the country’s infrastructure as well as its competence in providing basic care and services.
• A proposal to congress of $1.5 billion worth of aid to Pakistan every year over a 5 year period – essentially a regurgitation of the Marshall Plan in the Post World War II period, aimed at repelling Communism.
• The formation of a ‘Contact Group designed to incorporate the Gulf, Central Asia, Iran, India and China in order to have a stake in the security of the region.
• Reduction of tension between India and Pakistan.

It is indeed apparent that the strategy is comprehensive and thorough but it is designed to further divide the nation and create more tension and bloodshed. In unveiling his plan, Obama made no mention of the growing use of unmanned Predator drones to attack and kill suspected terrorists located in Pakistan’s autonomous tribal regions. The missile attacks have stirred already strong anti-American sentiment among Pakistani’s – a challenge that would surely be exacerbated if the US decides to follow through on the idea of extending the drone strikes to areas of western Pakistan under the Pakistani government’s control. Furthermore, the former interior secretary of Pakistan, Rustam Shah Mohmand, expressed his concerns at the strategy as it would reduce Pakistan to ‘a battlefield’.

It is important to note that the US has been unable to create any meaningful peace in Afghanistan and as the Taliban have been inflicting a greater amount of casualties on the US and NATO forces in the mountainous areas, the US now wishes to push the war inside Pakistan – a situation that Rahimullah Yousafzai, a respected journalist, states would create ‘open war in the fields and streets of every city and town of Pakistan’

It must be clear to all that any ‘manufactured in Washington’ strategy dealing with a nuclear power is designed to cripple the country by inciting civil strife, which is the ultimate objective. Such ‘divide and conquer’ efforts is a typical text book approach to colonialism that the British are all too familiar with and the US have successfully used, most recently in Iraq.

Pakistan should resist attempts by outsiders in meddling with its affairs as the US is just as imperial and capitalist as it has been under George W. Bush and other American presidents. It is apt to say that we are witnessing a change in style with the newcomer Obama but essentially the substance and end objectives remain the same. Only with a complete overhaul of the existing corrupt secular system and replacement with the Islamic Khilafah, can Pakistan release itself from the shackles of US colonialism and finally improve the affairs of its people.

If we work righteous deeds and follow the plan of Islam, no matter how much the kuffar plan against this ummah they will never succeed inshAllah.

Allah سبحانه وتعالى says in Surah al-Anfal, ayah 30:

“They plot and plan, and Allah too plans; but the best of planners is Allah.”