Only an all-out offensive can make Taliban sue for peace
Every choice has consequences, ranging from fulfillment of our aspirations to devastation of our dreams. The whirlwind of death and destruction we are reaping seems to be the direct result of our choosing to sleep with rather than confronting the evil enemy within.
I have previously expressed my recurring trepidation about the looming possibility of our nation going down in history as a unique one that surrendered without a fight, without defending itself.
What will it take us to fight? The killing of 10 generals instead of three and murder of 100,000 citizens instead of half that? What is our red line or do we have a red line that the Taliban/Jihadis cannot cross? Or would our red line keep on shifting, like the shifting of the goalpost?
As things now stand, our words to fight and overcome terrorism have lost any credibility not only with the Taliban/Jihadists but with the world at large.
Whenever we talk of punishing and annihilating the Taliban, they take it as an empty threat –with ample justification. They know that the Pakistani government officials, army generals, politicians and other decision-makers have for a decade or so issuing hollow threats to tackle and finish off the ‘terrorists’ with no serious, corroborative action.
Our response to bloody onslaughts by the Taliban has been laced with just innocuous words, and jejune verbosity, lacking in deeds and action. Our reaction to Taliban atrocities is devoid of even the rudimentary courage to name and identify this enemy by name, lest we incur its wrath.
After each horrendous massacre of our people by this enemy our leaders, both civilian and military, ‘strongly condemn’ not the Taliban but the terror attacks and vow to eliminate not the enemy in flesh and blood but abstract ‘terrorism’ or ‘extremism’.
The Taliban know full well that any start of a serious offensive by our army and the nation would take us at least a few months or so and would give them enough time to prepare, disperse and take counter measures that may blunt our offensive. The time delay will telegraph our intentions and the coming attack, thus robbing us of the element of surprise, the key ingredient in any war offensive.
In the face of more brazen attacks on our country post APC, like the killing of a serving major general and suicide bombing in Peshawar murdering about a hundred of our minority citizens it is clear that an all-out war with the goal of achieving total victory against this enemy is our only option. If so, it’s time to get battle ready. The will to win must be preceded by a will to prepare for the war that lies ahead.
But before our army and nation launches an actual war offensive, both of them have to mobilize and make necessary preparations, which is no easy task. War preparations they say is half the battle. They convey in unmistakable terms a nation’s intent and resolve to fight and defend their country.
So the apt question: what exactly this preparation for war would entail? It’s no denying that it will be a comprehensive endeavour, involving all segments of our society, given the unpleasant fact that the Taliban/Jihadists not only fighting in the difficult, mountainous with many deep ravines, front in our North West but the enemy has treacherously opened a huge second front right in the heartland of our villages and cities.
Military readiness, strategy and planning for this final offensive, which would really be a battle for Pakistan’s very survival , must be based on the ultimate goal of decimating the enemy and accomplishing the mission of total victory, no quarters given, no mercy shown.
The military’s strategy must be spearheaded by our offensive capability to attack, attack and attack. Our defensive strategy adopted until now has proved to be an utter failure. With 50,000 killed in countless terror attacks, economy devastated, state almost decapitated, etc. The name of the game in this war must be to impose constant, cumulative and simultaneous pressure on the Taliban.
As far as readiness in the first front is concerned, the army will have to mobilize its troops and weapons in overwhelming numbers in the difficult hilly terrain lacking infrastructure for easy access. Close coordination with Afghan and NATO forces would be essential in order to prevent the escape of Taliban terrorists into that country.
In the second front, compromising of the country’s mainland, battle readiness would be a complex affair as the enemy has successfully embedded itself into the sinews of our civil society. It has established a veritable network of spies, agents, cohorts, armed supporters and other enablers in the heartland.
The complete cooperation, coordination, alertness, preparedness of the police, and all law enforcing agencies and civilians with the army leading the fight to destroy the enemy and its cohorts would be required.
In the event it finally comes down to war, the army while launching a full scale offensive in the tribal front should simultaneously strike at the hideouts and support centres of the Taliban/Jihadists located in the second war front all across the Pakistan mainland.
Whatever the underlying reasons, America’s war or paranoid and convoluted international conspiracy theories or delusions, the fact remains that the whole nation has been petrified and paralyzed by fear and power of the enemy. We capped our defeatism by the verbal surrender of APC’s resolution – begging the enemy for talks.
All this capitulation is not lost on the cunning Taliban. Would anyone in the Taliban’s shoes not laugh and scoff at our nation of wimps and cowards?
Its only our readiness for war, to be capable of instantly dropping bombs and hurling rockets and bullets at the enemy would now enable us to “negotiate from a position of strength”, that cliché that our opinion makers have discovered of late.
It may seem ironical but it’s very much possible that our very readiness to launch an all-out offensive against the Taliban enemy may actually help the peace process and prevent the war.
With our weapons fully loaded, charged and ready to fire and deliver at the push of a button, with our soldiers poised to pierce the enemy’s heart, the enemy would know without any doubt that this time round we mean business, that this time we have the ability and the will to crush it. And if it still foolishly chooses to ignore our resolve and determination thus displayed, it would do so at its own peril.
Every rational human being abhors violence and bloodshed and human suffering and pain – the currency of war. But there comes a time in a nation’s life that conflict becomes a necessity; if for nothing else then for survival’s sake survive and for avoidance of greater violence and bloodshed and a bigger catastrophe. The peace we keep clamouring for cannot be the peace of a graveyard, the peace of the living dead!
We earnestly hope that such a scenario doesn’t come to pass, beset and burdened as we are with crushing problems. But if it does, then we must be ready and able to heap destruction on this enemy. If it doesn’t, if the war doesn’t materializes as wisdom miraculously dawns on the primordial Taliban, and we are able to achieve our national objectives without fighting, then so much the better.
All our preparedness and mobilization will be a much needed boost for the morale and future of our country. It will not go in vain. The world will see that we are a nation with some spine, dignity and self-respect – ready to sacrifice and die for our values and ideals.
Whether we fight or we don’t, we should strive for and settle for nothing less than complete triumph over the Taliban. Either way, for once in six decades we should expect and be able to smell the sweet fragrance of victory.
The writer is a US-based attorney, author and independent analyst.