After Murder of Laden - some Random Thoughts
- The triumphant expression of the assassinators: geronimo ekia! But why the name of geronimo was used as a codename for Laden?
- Killing Bin Laden, continuous Drone attacks in Pak killing thousands innocent Pak citizen, the Davis episode i.e. killing some innocent Pakistani citizens by a CIA staff of US embassy and getting scot– free after US pressure and paying blood– money to the kin of the dead persons ... is Pakistan, then, an US colony?
- "Pak must answer why it knowingly or unknowingly sheltered the most wanted ‘terrorist’ Bin Laden” – well, would US not answer first who created that Bin Laden as a mighty terrorist!
- The legality of morality of killing Laden and the way he was killed ...
- What the Pakistani workers and peasants will do! ...
Such were some feelings that cropped up after hearing the news that US secret forces killed Laden in a township in Pakistan – and it was quite difficult to organise those thoughts in a close– knit and interrelated manner that may develop an essay. So instead, this author is presenting those views in an unstructured manner.
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Though it is not a fitting occasion for a joke, I cannot help remembering a proverb – a cat has nine lives – because for the ninth time we heard of Bin Laden’s death on the first Sunday of May. Persons interested in those ‘nine deaths’ of Laden may get the history of his deaths from many sources; let me mention one – http://informationground.blogspot.com/2011/05/how– many– times– laden– died.html. But this time the operation was conducted by US special commandos arriving at a town Abottabad in Pakistan by helicopters, conducted the whole operation from landing, then killing Laden, then sending a proud message to their high command – geronimo ekia! ... then or before that killing some others, then lifting up Laden’s dead body ... all in less than 40 minutes. Then they dropped the dead body somewhere in the Arabian Sea. And they did not at all informed Pakistani government about anything – the Pak govt officially knew it from the jubilant declaration from the White House!
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What first struck dissonant was the use of the codename – well ekia means Enemy Killed In Action – but what about the word or the name – geronimo? Geronimo was a legendary figure, not in legends or myths, but in real life, in History. He was the last leader– fighter of the Native Americans (whom we commonly call Indians) – the leader of the Apache people, who fought for years against white i.e. European expansion– domination, be they Mexican– Spanish– Americans or US– English– Americans. His name was used as a code for a terrorist!
This is called colonialist culture. And strong reactions for the use of Geronimo’s name are understandable. Let us see some from http://ibnlive.in.com/news/geronimo-ekia-who-was-geronimo/151228-3.html. "Loretta Tuell, staff director and chief counsel for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said Tuesday that "These inappropriate uses of Native American icons and cultures are prevalent throughout our society and the impacts to Native and non– Native children are devastating.” Tuell is member of the Nez Perce Red Indian tribe who grew on the tribe’s reservation in Idaho. Weekly Indian Country Today also criticised "a disrespectful use of a name revered by many Native Americans.” "Apparently, having an African– American president in the White House is not enough to overturn the more than 200– year American tradition of treating and thinking of Indians as enemies of the United States,” columnist Steven Newcomb wrote.”
The Brits, some official spokespersons perhaps, came to rescue their overseas colonialist brothers. They said – well, what is in a codename; during Obama’s visit to UK we used a codename – chalaque (which in North Indian languages mean a clever, cunning fellow). But, can a harmless adjective be comparable to a name of a Native Hero?
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But the US invasion of that fateful May night was not the last one in Pakistan. On the 6th of May, then on 10th, on 12th, again on 13th ... US Drones, the unmanned aeroplanes firing missiles, attacked in several places of Pakistan killing 28 persons! Let us see the picture of Drone attacks in Pakistan from Table 1.
Table 1: US Drone Attacks in Pakistan from 2010
US Drone Attacks in Pakistan | |||
Year | Number of Drone Strikes | Number Killed (Min) | Number Killed (Max) |
2004 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
2005 | 2 | 6 | 7 |
2006 | 2 | 23 | 23 |
2007 | 4 | 56 | 77 |
2008 | 33 | 273 | 313 |
2009 | 53 | 368 | 724 |
2010 | 118 | 607 | 993 |
2011* | 25 | 133 | 197 |
Total | 238 | 1,470 | 2,339 |
(*Here the 2011 figure is perhaps not up to May 13)
Source: http://counterterrorism.newamerica.net/drones and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_attacks_in_Pakistan retrieved on 14&15.05.11
Astonishing! On the ascension to power of a Peace Nobel Laureate president, Obama, the Drone attacks and resulting casualties increased. All those attacks were allegedly against Taliban terrorist targets, but most of the persons died and injured were innocent citizens, many were women and children. But US has developed a good vocabulary – they call it ‘Collateral Damage’ – how innocent and polite a term they coined, perhaps during bombing Iraqi children, because we did not hear it while they dropped Napalm Bombs on Vietnam.
Well, Killing Laden and Drones are not all of the US– Pak syndromes in this year. An exciting one is left – that is the story of Raymond Davis.
The Guardian reported, "Investigators have determined that an American embassy worker who shot dead two Pakistani men was not acting in self– defence, prompting police to recommend he face murder charges. The case threatens to further strain elations between the two allies. The US says 36– year– old Raymond Davis shot the men on 27 January in self– defence in Lahore, claiming they were trying to rob him. Washington insists his detention is illegal under international agreements covering diplomats because he is a member of US embassy staff. American officials have begun curbing diplomatic contacts and threatening to cut off billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan.” [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/11/american-embassy-man-pakistan-murders]
But Davis got scot– free. The BBC reported, "16 March 2011, Last updated at 18:10 GMT
CIA contractor Ray Davis freed over Pakistan killings: A Pakistani court has freed a US CIA contractor after acquitting him of two counts of murder at a hearing held at a prison in Lahore, officials say. Raymond Davis, 36, was alleged to have shot dead two men in the eastern city of Lahore in January following what he said was an attempted armed robbery. The acquittal came when relatives of the dead men pardoned him in court. They confirmed to the judge overseeing the case that they had received compensation – known as "blood money”. ... Reports say about 18 family members of the two dead men were in court on Wednesday and confirmed that they wanted Mr Davis to be freed and pardoned because they had received "blood money”. The Pakistani media has reported that the families received 200 million rupees ($2.34m, £1.1m) but US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denied the US government had paid any blood money.” How Sharia (Islamic Law) came to rescue an American murderer! And how great is the virtue of Money! (To know about blood– money you may visit the Gulf News site and search. The item was written by Bassma Al Jandaly, Staff Reporter, Published: 12:49 July 20, 2009.)
After the Davis episode a loud hue and cry was heard in Pakistan – Is Pakistan a US Colony! If you enter three words, Pakistan, US and Colony, or two words like Pakistan and Sovereignty in Google you will get plenty of search results with these three words in the filename. But it was not a totally new thing – we had heard it before too, as for example "May 25, 2007, Book Review – Pakistan: Sovereignty Lost, by Shahid ur Rehman, at http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/.” Just go through these lines: "Many economists have done far more extensive cost– benefit analyses – but don’t expect much from the set of economists presently running our affairs courtesy the IMF with their own vested US interests. The bottom line is that we have allowed ourselves to be dragged into a falsely created dependency on US aid, by vested interests, which has little to do with national needs such as greater access to markets.” The authoress of these lines is not at all a ‘commie’, "Shireen M. Mazari is a scholar and commentator on Strategic Studies and Political Science from Pakistan. She was Director General of Institute of Strategic Studies, a research think– tank based in Islamabad, Pakistan and former Editor of The Nation.”
[http://pakpotpourri2.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/the-myth-of-dependence/]
But more caustic and arrogant was the following: "Friday, April 1, 2011, Former CIA Agent Says Pakistan a US Colony: Robert Anderson, a CIA operative who operated in Vietnam some 60 years back, recently wrote an article on CounterPunch on what the undercover work CIA did back then and the similarities with CIA now in terms of running operative like Raymond Davis working in Pakistan. The release of Davis in my opinion is just a green light for more killings and assassinations by the US government and the CIA in your country. The pillage and slaughter of Pakistani will increase most likely in the quest of the US for imperial power over your country and region. The question of justice has been replaced by money. This is the typical way the US works, kill and buy people off. Pakistan, in my opinion, missed a historic opportunity with Ray Davis to affirm its sovereignty and now has basically returned to its former colonial status, only under the U.S. rather than the British.” [http://college-ethics.blogspot.com/2011/04/former-cia-agent-says-pakistan-us.html]
Many Pakistanis including even the famous Imran Khan believe that Pak is a US neo– colony, or politely speaking, a US– dependent country. And they blame the present and past rulers for succumbing to USA.
Actually the USA uses Pakistan at its whim. And the US Aid versus Year graph has many stories to tell. We shall produce that graph at the end of the article. For now let us hear the a part of the analyses of the data by Murad Ali (in Policy Perspectives, Volume 6, Number 2, Jul– Dec 2009). "Conclusion: From this analysis of US economic and military aid to Pakistan under different regimes, it can be concluded that the US has hardly shown any concern for democracy in Pakistan where its own geo– strategic goals have been at stake. US economic and military aid was high in the mid– 1950s and 1960s when Pakistan was under military rule. The main purpose of most US aid during these years was to contain communism and keep Pakistan from joining the communist bloc. The same trend can be observed during the military regime of General Zia ul Haq, when Pakistan was a close US ally in the cold war. The post– 9/11 era of the war on terror seems to be identical to the cold war period: despite military rule and serious human rights abuses, the US has been allocating ample aid to Pakistan government for its support. This analysis reinforces the view that every time the US has required Pakistan’s support to achieve its own geo– political goals, it has shown no hesitation in embracing military dictators.”
We can examine the essence of the comment by two Tables constructed by the data provided by "Financial aid to Pakistan since 9_11 From U.S – Hawaiian– TV” and http://www.ips.org.pk/pakistanaffairs/security-a-foreign-policy/1080-us-aid-to-pakistan-and-democracy.html (from which we got the article of Murad Ali.) These two Tables will show US economic and military aid to Pakistan for nine years before the "9/11” and nine years after that. Please note that US $ figures are at constant USD of 2006 till the year 2006 and after that year $ is at current price.
Table 2: US Economic and Military Aid from 1993– 2001 (Million $)
Year | Economic Aid, US$(2006) M | Military Aid, US$(2006) M |
1993 | 69.10 | 0.00 |
1994 | 63.70 | 0.00 |
1995 | 21.50 | 0.00 |
1996 | 20.40 | 0.00 |
1997 | 52.30 | 0.00 |
1998 | 33.20 | 0.00 |
1999 | 98.70 | 0.20 |
2000 | 22.40 | 0.00 |
2001 | 212.10 | 0.00 |
TOTAL | 593.40 | 0.20 |
Average | 65.93333333 | 0.022222222 |
Table 3: US Economic and Military Aid from 2002– 2010 (Million $)
Year | Economic Aid, US$(2006) M | Military Aid, US$(2006) M |
2002 | 875.80 | 329.00 |
2003 | 362.70 | 287.90 |
2004 | 377.90 | 89.80 |
2005 | 467.80 | 322.40 |
2006 | 643.00 | 299.00 |
2007 | 567.00 | 1,115.00 |
2008 | 507.00 | 1,435.00 |
2009 | 1,366.00 | 1,689.00 |
2010 | 1,409.00 | 1,232.00 |
TOTAL | 6,576.20 | 6,799.10 |
Average | 730.6888889 | 755.4555556 |
How fascinating – in the ‘lean period’ 9 years preceding "9/11” the average economic aid was less than one– tenth of the average of the ‘strong period’ i.e. 9 years post "9/11”; and post "9/11” average military aid increased by 34000 times of that of the ‘lean period’!
No wonder a commentator says, "For Pakistan, the costs of this subservience to the US and surrender of national sovereignty has proven extremely costly and far outweighs any short term gains that may have been made – although that is itself a contentious issue. ... Ironically, Pakistan has also become far more insecure as a result of becoming a surrogate for a US militaristic agenda that is rapidly slipping into a quagmire of confusion and hysteria. By opening up the whole country to the US, our rulers have also allowed all manner of external intruders into conducting low intensity operations in our sensitive areas not only of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but also of Balochistan. Add to this the bombings of shrines and mosques and the accentuating of Shia– Sunni and Deobandi– Barelvi divides, and the costs for Pakistan of the present alliance with the US rise even higher. Even Karachi and, increasingly, Punjab are becoming susceptible to militancy and violence as the provincial governments remain unresponsive to the needs of their people and the federal government remains preoccupied in appeasing the US and the destabilizing IMF.” [http://www.area148.com/cms/?p=3882]
But what is the ‘honey’ in the US aid money? A Guardian report says "Up to 70% of US aid to Pakistan ‘misspent’” – and is it not easy to guess where the bulk of the money goes?
But who cares! For further ‘exhilarating entertainment’ we may compare GDP growth rate of the ‘lean period’ and the ‘strong period’ (data of GDP at current prices was taken from the Wikipedia where they mentioned two sources of their data: 1. [http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2006/01/data/dbcselm.cfm?G=2001] and 2. National Accounts (current prices) [http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/fbs/statistics/national_accounts/table2.pdf].)
Had the change in flow of US aids much impact on GDP growth rate? Guess.
(A closer look to data of recent years perhaps will suggest a link of Pakistan’s GDP fate with the recent past ‘boom’ phase and the present ‘crisis phase’ of US economy.)
Lean Period Year | GDP growth rate | Strong Period Year | GDP growth rate | |
1993 | 4.37 | 2002 | 4.73 | |
1994 | 5.06 | 2003 | 7.48 | |
1995 | 6.60 | 2004 | 8.56 | |
1996 | 1.70 | 2005 | 5.82 | |
1997 | 3.49 | 2006 | 6.61 | |
1998 | 4.18 | 2007 | 3.68 | |
1999 | 3.91 | 2008 | 1.21 | |
2000 | 1.96 | 2009 | 4.09 | |
2001 | 3.11 | 2010 | NA | |
AVG | 3.82 | AVG | 4.23 |
But foreign friends of Pakistan continue to allure Pakistan of more and more Foreign Loans and Aids. As the Wikipedia article on Paistan’s Economy says: "Pakistan receives economic aid from several sources as loans and grants. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), etc. provides long term loans to Pakistan. Pakistan also receives bilateral aid from developed and oil– rich countries. <Para> The Asian Development Bank will provide close to $6 billion development assistance to Pakistan during 2006– 9. The World Bank unveiled a lending program of up to $6.5 billion for Pakistan under a new four– year, 2006– 2009, aid strategy showing a significant increase in funding aimed largely at beefing up the country's infrastructure. Japan will provide $500 million annual economic aid to Pakistan. In November 2008, The International Monetary Fund(IMF) has approved a loan of 7.6 Billion to Pakistan, to help Stabilize and rebuild the country's economy. More recently the govt of Pakistan received an economic aid of US $5bn dollars out of which the US pledge of $1bn was described as a down– payment on the previously announced $1.5bn already promised to Pakistan for each of the next five years. The European Union promised $640m over four years, while reports said Saudi Arabia had pledged $700m over two years. Overall Friends of Pakistan had pledged $1.6 billion in aid, which would help Pakistan move forward on its way to self– reliance.”
One Ali Yar Khan Frustratingly writes in his blog: "Pakistan, since the independence is surviving on aids, donations and loans. In every difficult situation or even in any situation it looks towards the masters who give largess, for help and direction. We have never tried to be the master of our own destiny. I am wondering whether we are capable of surviving at our own at all? What do you think?” [http://www.pkhope.com/can-pakistan-survive-without-aid/] But yes, Pakistan can survive and grow without foreign loans and aids – but that presupposes something very much changed scenario – the scenario we shall envisage at the end of this piece.
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Pro– Americans gnashed their teeth even after killing Laden: "Pak must answer why it knowingly or unknowingly sheltered the most wanted ‘terrorist’ Bin Laden”. Well, they might have forgotten who were behind the creation of this Bin Laden as a terrorist. Let us see another table, Table 4, to see how the Iranian ‘revolution’ and Soviet export of socialism to Afghanistan in the years 1978– 79– 80 changed US behaviour towards Pakistan in terms of ‘aid’.
Table 4: US Economic and Military Aid to Pakistan from 1977 to 1992, in million US$
Year | Economic Aid, US$(2006) M | Military Aid, US$(2006) M |
1977 | 296.70 | 0.90 |
1978 | 199.80 | 1.40 |
1979 | 119.70 | 1.10 |
1980 | 127.90 | 0.00 |
1981 | 152.80 | 0.00 |
1982 | 372.80 | 1.10 |
1983 | 497.00 | 465.00 |
1984 | 528.60 | 517.30 |
1985 | 565.00 | 543.00 |
1986 | 580.10 | 507.80 |
1987 | 557.60 | 497.60 |
1988 | 716.40 | 401.10 |
1989 | 521.30 | 341.90 |
1990 | 510.30 | 263.90 |
1991 | 139.30 | 0.00 |
1992 | 25.30 | 6.70 |
How wonderful! After Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan the US aid to Pakistan nosedived! And not only had the US spent a lot on Pakistan for anti– Soviet remote– war, but they directly, through CIA etc overt and covert sources, granted huge sums to Mujaheedins including the future Talibans.
US hand behind creation and development of the so called ‘Islamic’ terrorists including Bin Laden is so well known a story that it need not be retold.
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Some legal, ethical, moral questions were raised after the Laden– killing incident. There were many versions of the incident as expressed in different times by the White House and surprisingly each one was to some extent altered from f.
From The Guardian we saw: [Friday 6 May 2011 01.58 BST] The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the killing of an unarmed Osama bin Laden by US special forces left him with a "very uncomfortable feeling”. Williams is the latest religious leader to comment on the ethics of the killing of Bin Laden. On Monday a Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said that while Christians "do not rejoice” over a death, it serves to remind them of "each person’s responsibility before God and men”.
Fidel Castro, at this age and with his still frail health has written a rather long piece titled: "Lies and Mysteries Surrounding Bin Laden’s Death”, which is worth reading.
In sites like MRZine, ZNET, etc several articles have appeared dealing the legal and ethical questions related to this US imperialist adventure. Interested readers may peruse.
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Although the Pakistani intelligentsia’s wrath, anger or rage is growing over the US control on Pakistan, and though at least a few of them believe that Pakistan CAN sustain and grow without foreign grants, aids and loans, it is not them on which we may put any faith for deliverance of Pakistan from this US– slavery. The bourgeois– petit– bourgeois today cannot lead any anti– imperialist crusade. Only the working class, the toiling peasantry, and in a word – the toiling people of Pakistan can liberate their country from imperialist clutch through a peoples revolution.
We know that the working class of Pakistan is passing through a period of defeat as a part of the defeat of the first offensive international working class movement; there is no true class party of the proletariat there. But as we see in several other countries, in Pakistan too a slow re– appearance of the workers in the arena of struggle is seen in the recent years – that is a separate subject to be dealt separately. We put our hope on the workers of Pakistan, the toiling people of Pakistan. They can indeed make an independent, sovereign and secular peoples republic of Pakistan.
Below we produce the Graph of US economic and military aid to Pakistan from 1951 to 2010. We constructed it taking data from 2 sources: "Financial aid to Pakistan since 9_11 From U.S – Hawaiian– TV” and http://www.ips.org.pk/pakistanaffairs/security-a-foreign-policy/1080-us-aid-to-pakistan-and-democracy.html. (till 2006 in constant 2006 $ million)
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