Kashmir just the beginning in jihadis' vision of war (this is a chilling read)

Asia Times ^ | May 18 2002 | Syed Saleem Shahzad

[AM2000]

KARACHI - The deadly hand of jihadis appears finally to have stoked the fires of confrontation to such an extent that a clash between India and Pakistan is inevitable.

Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged what was described by Indian defense officials as unusually heavy border fire on Friday in the south of Jammu and Kashmir following the attack on Tuesday in Indian-ruled Kashmir in which 35 people died. India has blamed Pakistan-backed Islamic militants for the incident.

Jihadi sources say that the latest attack in Kashmir is part of a much broader plan to push India and Pakistan into conflict and to foment unrest from the Indian subcontinent to Central Asia in order to complete their unfinished agenda of creating a bi-polar world of Muslims and non-Muslims.

Long before the events of September 11, Islamists had begun to rally in the face of what they perceived as spreading United States hegemony in the post Cold War era. Washington, they believed, was set on the elimination of fundamentalist forces in South and Central Asia - basically the remnants of the jihadi movements that fought in Afghanistan, and which, ironically, the US supported and helped equip. At the same time, the US would counterbalance the increasing presence of China in the region, which was quickly emerging to fill the vacuum left by the demise of the former Soviet Union.

Islamic militants, battle-hardened in the mountains of Afghanistan, formed the core of the opposition to the US challenge. And foremost among them was al-Qaeda, a coalition of several militant groups with members in many countries, with its vision of a polarized world. After the US overran Afghanistan, the base for most of the jihadis, they shifted to Indian-held Kashmir, and to India itself, from where they plan to stir India and Pakistan into fighting that they reason will inevitably draw in the US.

Prominent Pakistani defense analyst, Colonel (retired) Ghafar Mehdi, says that the current situation between India and Pakistan suggests that India will try to occupy some strategic areas of Pakistani-administered Azad (Free) Kashmir. Tuesday's attack has, in many people's eyes, given India the right to do this, especially in the "war on terror" era.

Prominent analyst on international affairs and former chairman of the international affairs department of Karachi University, Professor Shamim Akhtar, explains further, saying that for the first time Pakistan is engaged on three fronts - in its own tribal areas (along with the US in looking for al-Qaeda and Taliban forces), on its northeastern border with India, and on the domestic front, where militants are agitating against President's General Pervez Musharraf's alliance with the US.

The failed attack to blow up the Indian parliament on December 13 was the beginning of jihadis' new war aimed at raising tension between New Delhi and Islamabad to boiling point. Although Pakistan has denied the involvement of any Pakistani-based militant groups in this attack, insiders have no doubt that they were involved. A widely-publicized crackdown against militants in Pakistan announced earlier this year was aimed at clipping the wings of the militants, but few people of importance were detained. Mostly rank-and-file group members or those who did not toe the government line were taken in. And when subsequently released, they agreed to stop cross-border activities.

Further, Pakistan's Corps Intelligence, Military Intelligence (303) and the Inter-Services Intelligence have set out new guidelines for their contacts in the militant groups acting in Kashmir: they should act more like locals and sever ties with international groups such as al-Qaeda, and adopt more politics and less militancy. Those jihadis opposed to this have now made their base the whole of India, and once fighting does break out between Pakistan and India, their networks across India will be activated to play havoc with Indian interests.

This is the big game plan in which US and allied forces will have to become involved, and the battlefield will be from the Pansher Valley in Afghanistan to Kolkata in India.

(©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact ads@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)

[AM2000]

ping

[Shermy]

A division of the world into two, with the Muslim one stretching from the Atlantic to Phillipines? No, the root cause is us! Well, maybe not. From Osama's second video:

...The positions of the two sides are very clear. Mass demonstrations have spread from the farthest point in the eastern part of the Islamic world to the farthest point in the western part of the Islamic world, and from Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan to the Arab world and Nigeria and Mauritania.

This clearly indicates the nature of this war. This war is fundamentally religious. The people of the East are Muslims. They sympathized with Muslims against the people of the West, who are the crusaders.

Those who try to cover this crystal clear fact, which the entire world has admitted, are deceiving the Islamic nation.

They are trying to deflect the attention of the Islamic nation from the truth of this conflict.

This fact is proven in the book of God Almighty and in the teachings of our messenger, may God's peace and blessings be upon him.

Under no circumstances should we forget this enmity between us and the infidels. For, the enmity is based on creed.

We must be loyal to the believers and those who believe that there is no God but Allah.

We should also renounce the atheists and infidels. It suffices me to seek God's help against them.

God says: "Never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with thee unless thou follow their form of religion."

It is a question of faith, not a war against terrorism, as Bush and Blair try to depict it.

Many thieves belonging to this nation were captured in the past. But, nobody moved.

The masses which moved in the East and West have not done so for the sake of Osama.

Rather, they moved for the sake of their religion. This is because they know that they are right and that they resist the most ferocious, serious, and violent Crusade campaign against Islam ever since the message was revealed to Muhammad, may God's peace and blessings be upon.

After this has become clear, the Muslim must know and learn where he is standing vis-a-vis this war....

[swarthyguy]

THanks for the ping. Chilling perhaps to those whose refuse to see the true picture and recognize the enemy. It's a worldwide jihad and people have to understand that as long as you are a non-muslim of any stripe, you're their target.

Reason, rationality and traditional geopolitical chess game scenarios have no resonance with these guys.

We will have to show them that we are even more irrational and determined than they are.

I vote for a ittybitty nuke over mucka. Go to the source and take it out. 1 billion muslims with noplace to go for their Hajj.

[Red Jones]

bump

[Fish out of Water]

*Index Bump

[Dog Gone]

I think this is basically accurate. An India/Pakistan war would play directly into the hands of the terrorists. In fact, it is they who are trying to create it.

India can't see that because of the generational hate they have with Pakistan (which is reciprocated, of course).

Far too many here, perhaps even the majority, believe that we are in a war with all of Islam. Fortunately, that is not the case. We are in a war with radical fundamental Islam, and that's a much smaller subset.

I'm not sure we could win a war against all of Islam, which is what Osama wants to happen. Instead, we have to avoid falling into the traps they have laid for us, and exterminate them. No easy task, but somewhat manageable.

That will become far more difficult if actual war breaks out between India and Pakistan, and I trust we are making strong efforts with both countries to make sure that doesn't happen.

[Dog Gone]

You might find this article interesting.

[Dog Gone]

You're basically arguing that we should attempt to conquer, by force of arms, about 1/3rd of the globe, occupy it and then govern it.

It's not possible, nor is it desirable.

Your suggestion that toppling Musharraf and replacing him with a bin Laden clone would be beneficial is actually complete lunacy. There is no better way to ensure that a nuke goes off in midtown Manhattan than that.

You need to rethink your position.

[Dog Gone]

Practically nobody lives in Afghanistan. You're talking about systematically knocking off a series of countries with a combined population far in excess of ours and occupying them until they suddenly see the wisdom of western thought. Many of those have relatively sophisticated weapons, and at least one has nukes.

Afghanistan was the easy one. Iraq will be a thousand times more difficult. Saudi Arabia is armed with sophisticated US weaponry. We're not sure what Iran has, but it isn't pleasant.

It may be pleasant to fantasize about conquering all these countries and a couple of dozen more, but it's never going to happen. It's never going to be attempted.

[AM2000]

The British colonized the entire Arab world. If they can do it why can't we?

[Dog Gone]

The Age of Colonialism may have been nice, at least for the British Empire, but the world has certainly changed since then. I don't think there's any going back.

[AM2000]

I don't know about that. Major powers have maintained very large empires for hundreds of years. I'm not sure what's changed so much in the last 50 to make that not-doable anymore. Besides, we're not talking about an empire here. Just a form of neo-colonialism where we splinter the Arab world into smaller, more managable, client states that are subservient to us ;-)

[free from tyranny]

I would not be suprised, in the least, to learn of a Marshall-like Plan for the whole of the Middle East and Central Asia. It wouldn't suprise me either to hear that GWB pitched this plan to Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia during his recent dog and pony show with the Prince.

Change needs to come to the Middle East. What better pretext for wholesale change than a retaliatory campaign avenging the deaths of millions of innocent Americans.

The relics that govern the Middle East and Cental Asia and their similar power-mad replacements who are waiting in the wings are products of a Cold War era. They must go!The world needs cheap energy to continue its development. The delivery must be reliable. The radical Islamic governments and their followers must be eliminated just like the Nazi's and the Japanese Imperialists before them.

Same play book different players.

[livis_dad]

Well put! The logic may seem ruthless and barbaric, but what alternative is there? Fanatics are unmanageable. Most Islamic Nations in the Middle East despise western civilization or any civilization which seems more successful. It's in their teachings from childhood, how can you counter that? The basic teaching... Evil people are more successful, and less successful people are slaves... yeah right, Islam is a peaceful religion. Can you feel the overbearing smog of sarcasism?

[sharkdiver]

What is the primary goal of the Arab dictator in the Middle East. Simple, to stay in power. How do they do this. by have police, security personnel and the military round up militants and imprison them or flat out kill them. Thus they stay in power and pray to allah that the fundamentalist Muslims march in the streets chant "Down Down with the USA" and do not get organized and overthrow their governments. This is why we as a nation piss into the wind and get our shoes wet. These dictatorships will never truely be our allies. The have an agenda of just trying to stay in power and keep the masses from revolting.

[Dog Gone]

I certainly agree with your last point. When we take out Saddam, and institute a real western democracy, the dominoes of the other Gulf States will topple, hopefully in a gentle fashion.