The man who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square was a Pakistani. Why is this unsurprising? Answer: because when you hold a burning match to a gasoline tank, the laws of chemistry demand combustion.
As anti-American lava spews from the fiery volcanoes of Pakistans private television channels and newspapers, collective psychosis grips the countrys youth. Murderous intent follows with the conviction that the US is responsible for all ills, both in Pakistan and the world of Islam.
Faisal Shahzad, with designer sunglasses and an MBA degree from the University of Bridgeport, acquired that murderous intent. Living his formative years in Karachi, he typifies the young Pakistani who grew up in the shadow of Zia-ul-Haqs hate-based education curriculum.
The son of a retired Air Vice-Marshal, life was easy as was getting US citizenship subsequently. But at some point the toxic schooling and media tutoring must have kicked in. Guilt may have overpowered him as he saw pictures of Gaza’s dead children and held US support for Israel responsible. Then a little internet browsing, or perhaps the local mosque, steered him towards the idea of an Islamic caliphate. The solution to the worlds problems would require, of course, the US to be damaged and destroyed. Hence Shahzad’s self-confessed trip to Waziristan.
Ideas considered extreme a decade ago are now mainstream. A private survey carried out by a European embassy based in Islamabad found that only 4% of Pakistanis polled speak well of America, 96% against. Although Pakistan and the US are formal allies, in the public perception the US has ousted India as Pakistans number one enemy.
Remarkably, anti-US sentiment rises in proportion to aid received. Say one good word about the US, and you are automatically labeled as its agent. From what popular TV anchors had to say about it, Kerry-Lugars $7.5 billion may well have been money that the US wants to steal from Pakistan rather than give to it.
Pakistan is certainly not the worlds only country where America is unpopular. In pursuit of its self-interest, wealth and security, the US has waged illegal wars, bribed, bullied and overthrown governments, supported tyrants and military governments, and undermined movements for progressive change.
But paradoxically the US is disliked far more in Pakistan than in countries which have born the direct brunt of American attacks – Cuba, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Why?
Drone strikes are a common but false explanation. Foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi implicitly justified the Times Square bombing as retaliation. But this simply does not bear up. Drone attacks have killed some innocents, but they have devastated militant operations in Waziristan while causing far less collateral damage than Pakistan Army operations. On the other hand, the cities of Hanoi and Haiphong were carpet-bombed by B-52 bombers and Vietnam’s jungles were defoliated with Agent Orange, the ffects of which persist even today. Yet, Vietnam never developed deep visceral feelings like those in Pakistan.
Finding truer reasons requires deeper digging. In part, Pakistan displays the resentment and self-loathing of a client state for its paymaster. US-Pakistan relations are frankly transactional today, but the master-client relationship is older. Indeed, Pakistan chose this path because confronting India over Kashmir demanded heavy militarization and big defense budgets. So, in the 1960s, Pakistan willingly entered into the SEATO and CENTO military pacts, and was proud to be called ‘Americas most allied ally’. The Pakistan Army became the most powerful, well-equipped and well-organized institution in the country. This also put Pakistan on the external dole, a price that Pakistan has paid for its Indo-centrism.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, even as it brought in windfall profits, deepened the dependence. Paid by the US to create the anti-Soviet jihadist apparatus, Pakistan is now being paid again to fight that war’s blow-back. Pakistan then entered George W. Bush’s war on terror to enhance America’s security – a fact that further hurt self-esteem. It is a separate matter that Pakistan fights that very war for its own survival, and must call upon its army to protect the population from throat-slitting, hand-chopping, girl-whipping fanatics.
Passing the buck is equally fundamental to Pakistan’s anti-Americanism. It is in human nature to blame others for one’s own failures. Pakistan has long teetered between being a failed state and a failing state. The rich won’t pay taxes? Little electricity? Sewage-contaminated drinking water? Population out of control? Kashmir unsolved? Just blame it on the Americans. This phenomenon exists elsewhere too. For example, one recently saw the amazing spectacle of Hamid Karzai threatening to join the Taliban and lashing out against Americans because they (probably correctly) suggested he committed electoral fraud.
Tragically for Pakistan, anti-Americanism plays squarely into the hands of Islamic militants. They vigorously promote the notion of an Islam-West war when, in fact, they actually wage armed struggle to remake society. They will keep fighting this war even if America were to miraculously evaporate into space. Created by poverty, a war-culture, and the macabre manipulations of Pakistan’s intelligence services, they seek a total transformation of society. This means eliminating music, art, entertainment, and all manifestations of modernity. Side goals include chasing away the few surviving native Christians, Sikhs, and Hindus.
At a time when the country needs clarity of thought to successfully fight extremism, simple bipolar explanations are inadequate. The moralistic question ‘Is America good or bad?’ is futile. There is little doubt that the US has committed acts of aggression as in Iraq, worsened the Palestine problem, and maintains the world’s largest military machine. We also know that it will make a deal with the Taliban if perceived to be in America’s self-interest, and it will do so even if that means abandoning Afghans to blood-thirsty fanatics.
Yet, it would be wrong to scorn the humanitarian impulse behind US assistance in times of desperation. Shall we simply write off massive US assistance to Pakistan at the time of the dreadful earthquake of 2005? Or to tsunami affected countries in 2004 and to Haiti in 2010? In truth, the US is no more selfish or altruistic than any other country of the world. And it treats its Muslim citizens infinitely better than we treat non-Muslims in Pakistan.
Instead of pronouncing moral judgments on everything and anything, we Pakistanis need to reaffirm what is truly important for our people: peace, economic justice, good governance, rule of law, accountability of rulers, women’s rights, and rationality in human affairs. Washington must be firmly resisted, but only when it seeks to drag Pakistan away from these goals.
More frenzied anti-Americanism will only produce more Faisal Shahzads.
The author teaches at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. This article was also published in Dawn.
Some comments from the ATP Facebook Page:
– ” A very well balanced article on the subject…”
– “come on guys yall know that it was a inside job…”
– “it can be explained easily that Faisal Shehzads incident was a inside job, give me a break yo call this article balanced!!!! yes i am against the talebans in Pakistan based on the fact that they are funded by external forces but the talebans in Afghanistan never did anything wrong. Apparently the best time tat afghanis had was during their reign. I cannot go in detail on any subject here but the author seems to be wrong on many subject and out dated even after the media in pakistan blowed up the tape in swat concerning the female brutality as fake. Yes thier are black sheeps in our country but our nation has not failed its just that we need to get rid of the present day politicians. I know that seems a very hard task but you gotta do what you gotta do. Being Americas ally never helped us and neither being Indias enemy. Its time to wake up and have a change in everything, fro politicians to policies. salam”
– “NO, we DO NOT know that it was an “inside job.” And the ONLY way YOU could know if it was were if YOU had been part of the “inside job. Were you?”
– “An excellent balanced article. I agree, its high time we stopped blaming the US for every evil under the sun and start owning up to our own faults.”
– “”the best time tat afghanis had was during their reign.”
Sir, please go and tell that to all the widows in the street of Kabul who got whipped by these primitives because they had to come out of their homes to feed their families.”
– “Excellent synthesis.”
…. Pakistanis need to reaffirm what is truly important for our people: peace, economic justice, good governance, rule of law, accountability of rulers, women’s rights, and rationality in human affairs. Washington must be firmly resisted, but only when it seeks to drag Pakistan away from these goals.
And when did Washington drag Pakistan away from peace, economic justice, good governance, rule of law, accountability of rulers, women’s rights, and rationality in human affairs?
This is a new one for me.
ATP is this an copy/paste error or has this guy has gone off the deep end?
Is he having a Karzai moment?
I agree that this anti-americanism is eating us deeply. But it is not without cause either. The greatest weapon that the terrorists and extremists have in their propaganda war is the actions of the Americans themselves.
hoodboy is right in saying that pakistanis and muslims need to reflect on their many shortcomings, but that does not excuse the us for invading their countries.
Islamic militants, hoodboy talks about were a small minorty and never had a chance of promoting any kind of islam. but that was before the so called war on terror.
hoodboy may be ‘the most respected academician of pakistan,’ but he really does not know the us foreign policy. after living here for almost 40 years i can say there is nothing redeeming about it. the world would be better off without the aid it doles out with all kind of strings attached to enslave the recipient.
let’s take the latest example of the us humanitarian aid to hait. us policy in haiti is responsible for the excessive devastation there. while other countries were bringing medical and other supplies, the us brought in thousands of troops. it closed the airports and prevented aid loaded planes from landing. it created a security situation that did not exist before.
tens of thousands dead because of the earthquake turned into hundreds of thousands because of the lack of medicine, food, water and other life saving supplies that the us blocked from reaching where needed.
listen to the people in the know and amy goodman of democracy now, the only news agency to give an extensive coverage over days and weeks after the quake
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/14/us_policy_in _haiti_over_decades
http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2010/1/19
the us is an evil empire not only for the world but for its own people. but we won’t go there.
I think the does need to look at its own policies including the drones which fuel this anti-americanism. While I agree that now the anti-americanism has turned loony and all sorts of crazy theories are propagated, but that does not mean teh US is without fault