By Umar Waqar,
26TH
November will become historic though infamous for the tragic loss of
Pakistan soldiers in the cold and chilly dawn at the Salala post of
Mohmmand Agency; coming within 12 hrs of touch down of General Allen
Jones’ helicopter at the Bagram Airbase after his cordial and
frank discussion with Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani
to discuss measures of enhancing border control on both sides;
coincidently the attack follows the conclusion of Pakistan China
military exercise in Pakistan and happens on the last day of Islamic
year 1432 AH. One would rather get perplexed and confused. This probably
is the start of the decisive phase of long War in the Afpak region,
this time directly targeted against Pakistan, the ally of the allies.
Welcome to the 3rd World War in which you can be part of the war without even noticing it; there are no formal declarations of war and where the 4th Generation War is order of the day.
Wikipedia describes it as, Fourth generation warfare (4GW) is
conflict characterized by a blurring of the lines between war and
politics, soldier and civilian. The term was first used in 1989 by a
team of United States analysts, including William S. Lind, to describe
warfare's return to a decentralized form. In terms of generational
modern warfare, the fourth generation signifies the nation states' loss
of their near-monopoly on combat forces, returning to modes of conflict
common in pre-modern times. The simplest definition includes any war in
which one of the major participants is not a state but rather a violent
non-state actor. As such, fourth generation warfare uses classical
tactics—tactics deemed unacceptable by traditional modern thinking—to
weaken the advantaged opponent's will to win.
However, William S Lind (due to his bias against Islam) put the entire blame of start of 4th
Generation War on Islam, that is clever tactics, you develop an idea of
destroying the entire Islamic World, than you create definitions, churn
up scenarios and finally assault a whole region to keep it destabilized
till dooms day..And very conveniently blame it on Islam. William S Lind
describes this new form of war as Fourth Generation war marked by a
return to a world of cultures, not merely states, in conflict. We
now find ourselves facing the Christian West's oldest and most steadfast
opponent, Islam. After about three centuries on the strategic
defensive, following the failure of the second Turkish siege of Vienna
in 1683, Islam has resumed the strategic offensive, expanding outward in
every direction. In this war, invasion by immigration can be at least
as dangerous as invasion by a state army.
I had argued in number of articles related to the Long War that
Pakistan was at centre stage of this war and that US lead coalition was
hell bent in creating divisions and cleavages in the West Asian region
to find a space for success of this Long War. Fortunately the West has
miserably failed on many accounts, people of Afpak region has proven to
more resilient than expected, they have adapted themselves in these
pressing and hard times and the mighty power of the US lead coalition
has been diluted in time (more than a decade now) to suffer a
humiliating defeat. Your own historians will not judge you that you were
defeated because of resilience of the people of Afpak region but by
mathematical parameters, the equation here is between the most
prosperous and high tech super power verses the poorest and low tech
nation of the Afghans, it is between the richest and Burger Gobbling
nations of the MacWorld on one side and poorest chappal wearing and
corncob eating nation on the other side, it is between the nations with
total dominance of Media(from Al Jezeera to
CNN-Fox-BBC-Star-Zee-Times-Newsweek-Guardian-Afghan Govt
channels-Pakistani Channels) verses the people with virtually no voice
to celebrate their historic victory.
As I said earliar, 26th November marks a turning point in the final
phase of this Long war against the Afpak region, now the war has been
directly and officially brought into Pakistan. Why I say directly and officially
is because of the fact that this Long War was already being indirectly
and un officially fought within Pakistan for almost a decade. The blurring of the lines between war and politics, soldier and civilian makes
it very difficult to feel that you are right at the centre stage and
within the middle of a World War. You are made so much immune and
apathetic to loss of human life that you daily see it on your TV screens
in your cushy drawing rooms, over a cup of hot coffee or if you are not
that privileged from the foot path on the TV screen of a barber shop,
and exclaim within your heart …oh it is the Libyans, not my business, it
is the Behrainians, not my business, oh it is the Afghans, not my
business, oh it is FATA, not from Lahore, not my business, oh it is not
from my muhallah, not my business and finally, oh it is my younger
brother not me…till the time you will be dragged and slaughtered like
Col Gaddafi..It is none of your business.
The aim of my discourse here is not to demoralize the common
Pakistanis but to make them aware that you have successfully weathered
this storm of 4th Generation War for a decade now, you are
now entering the last and the most decisive phase of the war, remain
united and clear any doubts that you had in your mind of the sincerity
of the West, no one is there to help you, everyone is here for his own
interest. Pakistan is not only the linchpin in this war but the jugular
vein of the NATO and entire Afghanistan, if our leadership can take a
firm stand and lead the nation to the path of unity, there is no way
that the west can ask you to do any more. We are 180 million strong
nation destined to find a place in the sun, the vacuum created by war in
Afpak region can only be filled up by people of the Afpak, Pakistan and
Afghanistan are not only physical twins but also twins of history and
posterity. Time has come to call a spade a spade, let us start a simple
and descent celebration of our victory on the dawn of 1st of Muharram
1433 AH.
http://www.opinion-maker.org/2011/12/4th-generation-war-and-pakistan/
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