Osama gives up the “Ghost”

Osama Bin Laden is dead and the world is celebrating. Why not? The biggest terrorist on the planet and most wanted and spiteful scalp in this Holy Global War Against Terror has been claimed and consigned to where he belonged. That spells an end to a dark era and extinction of all the misery and terrorism from the face of the globe. World abruptly turns into a much safer & peaceful heaven to live in. Congrats!

The condemned soul or his ghost has dissolved into thin air or depth of oceans where it was dumped in much haste. Why? For the reasons best known to the captives but that is perhaps not important and pointless.

What is important is to know that the myth or creation had approached its imminent shelf life. Nothing lasts for ever and every product is launched with an expiry date. As Robert Fisk sagely asserts, following the wave of insurgence and awakening in the Middle East and Arab world, Bin Laden had lost all relevance.

A ghost or a pawn that was created on the global chess board during the American war in Afghanistan by the agencies in the eighties continued to play according to a game plan. The puppet took the centre stage and limelight and entertained the audience world over as long as it was effective and meaningful. Invisible hands kept pulling the strings smartly and the absorbing show and act carried on until the dynamics began to change.  In business terms, the product had completed its total useful life and was on its way to turning obsolete.  

And that’s exactly how we deal with an obsolete object. It is ultimately dumped and gotten rid of upon its expiry. The man who had eluded the entire global intelligentsia laced with endless resources and information tools, equipped with surveillance systems that can penetrate and hunt down a needle or even its shadow or impression miles beneath the crest of the earth, for some unknown reason, took ten years to be traced and killed. But why the hell of all the places in the world in Abbottabad?

If it had to be Pakistan, perhaps it would’ve made some sense had he been dug out of some rocky caves in deserted Baluchistan or tribal belt; Or if he was captured from the stony expanse of Kohistan or even for that matter from the shadow or base of some of sky rocketing peaks in Gilgit or Baltistan. But as the luck would have it, it happened to be a most peaceful, serene, blooming, progressive and developing hill station; And above all home to the Pakistan Military Academy_ the training school of all the under commissioned army officers_ and a cantonment having significant military presence in the form FF and Baluch regimental centers. Is that just a mere coincidence!?

Like the rest of the world, as the fast paced events quickly unfolded, our government and foreign office was completely dumbfounded caught in utter shock and disbelief. For hours there came no official statement and when eventually it was issued, it was highly vague as expected. What is even more notable is that US president, Obama, in his statement specifically congratulated American forces and people without even slightest of mention of Pakistan or its co_operation. What is being regarded as a major diplomatic setback and failure, with a bit of cynicism, can be seen in a different light. Does that allude to a major policy shift on behalf of US in a new paradigm where Pakistan is being conveniently dumped or worse portrayed as a villain in the game? I sincerely hope not!

As one of my respected and wise friend most aptly puts it

“After successful screening for ten years internationally, the curtains on the greatest show on the earth “The Phantom of the Osama” have been drawn. The world waits with abated breaths for the next big international block buster. The hunt for the next big Charlton underway all over the Muslim world”  

Isn’t it so true and sums it all up so befittingly?

Whatever happened, we should be pleased about Osama’s elimination as it terminated and permanently closed a bleak and deplorable chapter from the books of history. But wait a moment. What did the Saddam’s extermination lead Iraq into? If I think upon the similar lines, is that what is apparently visible just a twist in the fairy tale, a sinister beginning or a tip of the ice berg?

Read Full Post »

The destiny of this pageant lies in the Kingdom of Oil

It was a usual banter over a cup of coffee with a diversity of views pouring in from across the table; some plausible others seemingly baseless. Someone termed it an induction and injection of ‘controlled chaos’ to tame the pawns and puppets safeguarding the interests of the western powers in the Middle East_ The Frankenstein thus cutting loose beyond the script and pulling the rug from under the feet of those who had invented the monster in the first place.

 As the discussion progressed, it all led us, at least partly, to believe that the epicenter of the volcano that has erupted lies somewhere beneath the oil wells prospering not only the holy land but a host of foreign masters and stakeholders. Now, when Robert Fisk points his unholy fingers towards the kingdom of Arabia there is something to watch out for……

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-destiny-of-this-pageant-lies-in-the-kingdom-of-oil-2226109.html

Robert Fisk: The destiny of this pageant lies in the Kingdom of Oil

The Middle East earthquake of the past five weeks has been the most tumultuous, shattering, mind-numbing experience in the history of the region since the fall of the Ottoman empire. For once, “shock and awe” was the right description. 

The docile, supine, unregenerative, cringing Arabs of Orientalism have transformed themselves into fighters for the freedom, liberty and dignity which we Westerners have always assumed it was our unique role to play in the world. One after another, our satraps are falling, and the people we paid them to control are making their own history – our right to meddle in their affairs (which we will, of course, continue to exercise) has been diminished for ever.

The tectonic plates continue to shift, with tragic, brave – even blackly humorous – results. Countless are the Arab potentates who always claimed they wanted democracy in the Middle East. King Bashar of Syria is to improve public servants’ pay. King Bouteflika of Algeria has suddenly abandoned the country’s state of emergency. King Hamad of Bahrain has opened the doors of his prisons. King Bashir of Sudan will not stand for president again. King Abdullah of Jordan is studying the idea of a constitutional monarchy. And al-Qa’ida are, well, rather silent.

Who would have believed that the old man in the cave would suddenly have to step outside, dazzled, blinded by the sunlight of freedom rather than the Manichean darkness to which his eyes had become accustomed. Martyrs there were aplenty across the Muslim world – but not an Islamist banner to be seen. The young men and women bringing an end to their torment of dictators were mostly Muslims, but the human spirit was greater than the desire for death. They are Believers, yes – but they got there first, toppling Mubarak while Bin Laden’s henchmen still called for his overthrow on outdated videotapes.

But now a warning. It’s not over. We are experiencing today that warm, slightly clammy feeling before the thunder and lightning break out. Gaddafi’s final horror movie has yet to end, albeit with that terrible mix of farce and blood to which we are accustomed in the Middle East. And his impending doom is, needless to say, throwing into ever-sharper perspective the vile fawning of our own potentates. Berlusconi – who in many respects is already a ghastly mockery of Gaddafi himself – and Sarkozy, and Lord Blair of Isfahan are turning out to look even shabbier than we believed. Those faith-based eyes blessed Gaddafi the murderer. I did write at the time that Blair and Straw had forgotten the “whoops” factor, the reality that this weird light bulb was absolutely bonkers and would undoubtedly perform some other terrible act to shame our masters. And sure enough, every journalist is now going to have to add “Mr Blair’s office did not return our call” to his laptop keyboard.

Everyone is now telling Egypt to follow the “Turkish model” – this seems to involve a pleasant cocktail of democracy and carefully controlled Islam. But if this is true, Egypt’s army will keep an unwanted, undemocratic eye on its people for decades to come. As lawyer Ali Ezzatyar has pointed out, “Egypt’s military leaders have spoken of threats to the “Egyptian way of life”… in a not so subtle reference to threats from the Muslim Brotherhood. This can be seen as a page taken from the Turkish playbook.” The Turkish army turned up as kingmakers four times in modern Turkish history. And who but the Egyptian army, makers of Nasser, constructors of Sadat, got rid of the ex-army general Mubarak when the game was up?

 And democracy – the real, unfettered, flawed but brilliant version which we in the West have so far lovingly (and rightly) cultivated for ourselves – is not going, in the Arab world, to rest happy with Israel’s pernicious treatment of Palestinians and its land theft in the West Bank. Now no longer the “only democracy in the Middle East”, Israel argued desperately – in company with Saudi Arabia, for heaven’s sake – that it was necessary to maintain Mubarak’s tyranny. It pressed the Muslim Brotherhood button in Washington and built up the usual Israeli lobby fear quotient to push Obama and La Clinton off the rails yet again. Faced with pro-democracy protesters in the lands of oppression, they duly went on backing the oppressors until it was too late. I love “orderly transition”. The “order” bit says it all. Only Israeli journalist Gideon Levy got it right. “We should be saying ‘Mabrouk Misr!’,” he said. Congratulations, Egypt!

Yet in Bahrain, I had a depressing experience. King Hamad and Crown Prince Salman have been bowing to their 70 per cent (80 per cent?) Shia population, opening prison doors, promising constitutional reforms. So I asked a government official in Manama if this was really possible. Why not have an elected prime minister instead of a member of the Khalifa royal family? He clucked his tongue. “Impossible,” he said. “The GCC would never permit this.” For GCC – the Gulf Co-operation Council – read Saudi Arabia. And here, I am afraid, our tale grows darker.

 We pay too little attention to this autocratic band of robber princes; we think they are archaic, illiterate in modern politics, wealthy (yes, “beyond the dreams of Croesus”, etc), and we laughed when King Abdullah offered to make up any fall in bailouts from Washington to the Mubarak regime, and we laugh now when the old king promises $36bn to his citizens to keep their mouths shut. But this is no laughing matter. The Arab revolt which finally threw the Ottomans out of the Arab world started in the deserts of Arabia, its tribesmen trusting Lawrence and McMahon and the rest of our gang. And from Arabia came Wahabism, the deep and inebriating potion – white foam on the top of the black stuff – whose ghastly simplicity appealed to every would-be Islamist and suicide bomber in the Sunni Muslim world. The Saudis fostered Osama bin Laden and al-Qa’ida and the Taliban. Let us not even mention that they provided most of the 9/11 bombers. And the Saudis will now believe they are the only Muslims still in arms against the brightening world. I have an unhappy suspicion that the destiny of this pageant of Middle East history unfolding before us will be decided in the kingdom of oil, holy places and corruption. Watch out.

But a lighter note. I’ve been hunting for the most memorable quotations from the Arab revolution. We’ve had “Come back, Mr President, we were only kidding” from an anti-Mubarak demonstrator. And we’ve had Saif el-Islam el-Gaddafi’s Goebbels-style speech: “Forget oil, forget gas – there will be civil war.” My very own favourite, selfish and personal quotation came when my old friend Tom Friedman of The New York Times joined me for breakfast in Cairo with his usual disarming smile. “Fisky,” he said, “this Egyptian came up to me in Tahrir Square yesterday, and asked me if I was Robert Fisk!” Now that’s what I call a revolution.

Read Full Post »