Lt. Gen. (r) Asad Durrani

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, some of the thinking heads tried to make us believe that the Public Opinion would now save the unipolar world from going out of plumb. Though the people all around have spoken clearly against the genocide in Gaza, it does not seem to have helped. Then there are some very powerful countries who would like to bring this atrocity to an end – but haven’t gone beyond blowing hot and cold. Even regimes that owe their office to popular support have shied away from doing anything of substance. They use any number of ruses to ratonalise inaction: risk of retaliation by the US; if any men or material was provided to Hamas, they might be charged with sponsoring terrorism; fear of escalation may also be cited to keep one’s fingers out of the fire; and indeed, countries like Pakistan would talk about their economic woes.

 No surprise therefore that the three Hs – Hamas; Hezbollah; and the Houthis – are the only hope for the Palestinians.

The Laws of Nature, according to Iqbal, were safeguarded by the people of the desert and from the mountains. No longer. Bedouins are now comfortable in their sedentary lifestyle, and no one is descending from Mount Sinai to help the Gazans. To learn how the world works, I suggest we reach out to the beasts. Switch on a channel like the Animal Kingdom and there are good chances that one would see a predator chasing a herd of Zebras. It will get one and the others would be relieved to be saved – for now. Next time around, another one would certainly be caught and killed. If you patiently watched on, another clan would show you how to turn the tables. A group of horned buffalos would go into a cauldron, like the Red Indians, and convince the hunter to give them a wide berth. Haven’t we seen the two scenarios played and replayed by the superior most of God’s creations! A bully on the block can terrorise a crowd except when it became a gang. The mighty Indian subcontinent often fell prey to invaders since the larger could deal with its constituents piecemeal. Even the freedom loving Afghans could be trampled-over till Ahmad Shah persuaded them to fight and plunder together.

So, the question is why do the states act like zebras but the non-state actors have grown horns!

 Roman Herzog was the German President in the mid-1990s. Having been the head of the Federal Constitutional Court, he had no inhibition in pronouncing his verdict regardless of any sensibilities. Immoral politics was no realpolitik, was one of the more harmless ones. The Nation State has run its course, rang alarm bells in the stately corridors. National Interest, the battle cry that helps many a government get away with murder, is at the heart of the Nation-State philosophy. It can be used to curb fundamental rights; ask the masses to make sacrifices; and send the soldiers to die in unwinnable wars – even cover up flaws in the leadership. Most importantly, instead of sticking one’s neck out to defend just causes, the mantra helps us hide it tortoise like in a shell. Over time, that has created a Brotherhood of biggies in politics, business and establishment who have vested interest in keeping the status quo – since it works for them. Rocking the boat might create some turbulence and therefore was best avoided. Such cliques have to look after the interests of their partners in crime. Country’s or People’s interests were more or less ancillary. Even in the so-called democracies, the state policies are often out of sync with the needs of the hoi polloi. Americans may need more money to educate their professors but Washington would rather spend it on foreign ventures (even though most of them bomb), because those who benefit from wars grease The Blob. Post Cold-War Germany gratefully reduced the military expenditure to rebuild its reintegrated eastern twin. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Berlin was arm-twisted by the Big Boss and swayed by its once formidable arms industry to upgrade its arsenal. Pakistanis must be amongst the most ardent Sinophiles in the world, but Islamabad keeps hedging because our leaders have hidden assets in the West.

The collateral damage is immense.

Revolutions are hijacked by the soldiers of fortune. Uprising in Iran was spearheaded by the communists, but the Islamists were better placed to commandeer it. Our clerics became the ideologues of a country having opposed its creation. The United Nations may have miserably failed in its primary mission – preventing wars – but cannot mend its ways as a P5 mafia sits on its pinnacle. Democracy as practiced limits your choices to one evil or the other – at best seen as the lesser one at any given time.

 Even in best run democracies the masses can be hoodwinked. About a decade ago, the German Parliament approved a few Euros relief in the pay structures – before giving themselves a rise of nearly a hundred. British, the old shopkeepers, have mastered the art of conning their own people and sold them Brexit to please their new masters. All of them – elected by popular support – have been captured by the political, the dynastic, or the business elites. In totalitarian states even the (false) Arab springs fizzle out. How come some of the citizens could still assert their rights! Where communists have historically or culturally been autonomous; public issues are addressed by the communists. Switzerland might have hosted a number of UN organs; but could not join the world body till the Cantons gave their consent. In Afghanistan, tribes take care of themselves and also of the foreign invaders, while the regime in Kabul plays second fiddle to the occupiers and later grows beards to join the victorious tribesmen. When people depend upon the policies from above, they have the choice to acquiesce; or listen to Howard Zinn, the author of the People’s History of the US: “if you want to improve your lot; protest, agitate, mobilise the streets, even spark revolutions”.

Madrid bombings in March 2004 were carried out by some Al-Qaida affiliate. This was in response to the so-called Global War on Terror – which was a swindle not because one cannot fight an abstract noun, a technique of war, or a tool of politics; but because it was to give the invasion of Afghanistan a marketable cover. As over ninety percent of the Spaniards had opposed this new American World Order, an old friend from another European country asked me what possible motive OBL could have had to commit this atrocity! The best that I could think of was that when in a country such overwhelming public sentiment was ignored, the masses may have to be provoked to act against their rulers. Soon thereafter, that government was voted out by the electorate.

Saudi Royals were all set to dump their age-old policy and nearly recognised Israel against the wishes of their spiritual twins, the Sheikhs of Najd, but this nefarious design was thwarted by Hamas, who has also done countries like Pakistan a huge favour – freed us from the delusion that the civilized world had the rule of law or the love of humanity at its heart. One didn’t expect that the ruling of the International Court of Justice would be accepted by the US, Israel, or their poodles, but that they would react by securing the UNRWA operation in Gaza provided yet another proof.

 If the NSAs could threaten the status-quo; the states and their beneficiaries would obviously go gunning for them. People on the other hand are gratified when like in our case they fill most of the gaps left by the self-serving establishment – like in education, health care, even providing security. During the brief period a faction of our Taliban held sway in Karachi, their mobile courts provided speedy justice to the poor. Let’s also not ignore the part played by the unofficial economy in providing some relief to the destitute. And if the Spanish operation was denied to our people, there are good chances that they would appeal to the militias come fight for them.

Due to the Sino-US rivalry, the world was already drifting in an East-West split. The crisis in the Middle East has created a new divide – between the North and the Global South. Pakistan is both East and South, but our leadership still seeks clearance to build a measly pipeline with Iran, which under International Law it does not have to. Some of our dyed in the jeans brains actually believe that we can keep all balls in the air. We have dropped them so often that this balancing mantra has outlived its shelf life.

Looking for the root-causes of any ill – and not only of terrorism – would lead to the doorsteps of one state or the other. It must have been over fifty years when our literati were in the thinking business. State must go was the prognosis of one of them. Indeed, we have no idea how to go about it. For the people, and not only in Gaza, the state is their enemy number one.

 The author is former Chief of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).