Whose War is it ?

Pakistan after 9/11 was forced to be an ally with the US in the war against terrorism. As the US wanted to remove further threats of terrorism by neutralizing Al-Qaeda and Taliban’s which were prevalent in Afghanistan. As this war initiated many of our leaders opposed joining the war by saying that this is America’s war but President Musharraf started supporting the war against terrorism. Now after about 10 years still we can’t reach a conclusion as some of our politicians regard this as our war while some regard it as America’s war and there is an ongoing clash between our politicians and Pakistan is stagnant where it was 10 years ago while the conditions have gone much worse.

The war against terrorism has proved to be fatal for Pakistan till now as the cost of this war has exceeded more than 68 billion dollars while the damages to life exceeds 35000 citizens and 3500 military personal but still the question is prevalent that is this our war or America’s war. After 10 years of war we face even more terrorism and almost every day there is a bomb blast in our country we should also remember that before this war against terrorism we didn’t had a single blast inside our country. The real issue regarding this illness is that it never seems to end and it is continuously spreading and increasing day by day so it is imperative that there is no end to it. Even one of the world’s biggest economy America is trying to flee away from Afghanistan without giving any proper solution to the problem and leaving Pakistan stranded in the middle of this war.

Before we come to a conclusion we must analyze who are we up against. Pathans as a nation are warriors and Pakistan Army is trying to conquer the lands which have never been conquered. No one has managed to subdue them: the Sikhs, the Russians, British and Mughals have all suffered defeat at their hands.  We must understand the psyche of these people and instead of fighting with these people we must give them ample resources to excel we must provide them excellent resources so they can educate their children and we must try to remove the disparity present between Lahore and tribal areas and even the differences present between Punjab and every other province if we want to eradicate this issue. We need to change our strategies quickly because as when America will leave Afghanistan all the terrorist will then try to attact Pakistan and we will be the one who will suffer ultimately in this war. Winston Churchill said "The Pathan tribes are always engaged in private or public war. Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian every large house is a real feudal fortress”

On the contrary America is provoking sentiments against Islamabad by killing innocent people in Waziristan using drone attacks and this was also the prime cause of the creation of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (The biggest terrorist threat to Pakistan). We are making our own force fight against our own people the only solution to this is to resolve the issues on the table instead of fighting. The time has also come that we take a stance and deliver it to America that this is not our war, this is your war and if we say this to America than I am pretty sure that we will also see an end to terrorism.

In the end I would like to quote that “Peace may cost as much as war, but it is a better buy.”

Arslan Mahmood Khan

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