IS IT THE OCCUPATION STUPID !
MY ASSESSMENT OF PAPES ARTICLE -ITS THE OCCUPATION STUPID
Agha H Amin
Robert .A.Papes article in the Foreign Policy Magazine "It's the Occupation-Stupid" is a simplistic summing up of a complex issue . A writer has to see all shades in between black and white and there are many . Islamic countries have been occupied by non Muslims and non Muslim countries occupied by Muslims in the past also without a war like this .In this case the situation is far more complicated hence the article is too myopic an attempt to see a highly complex issue .
Suicide attack is a tactic used when the technological advantage of one adversary is far superior to another as was the case in Pacific War between Japan and USA or when Forlorn Hopes were organised in 18th century wars ! To confuse it with occupation a political act would be comically naieve and myopic !
Saudi Arabia , UAE , Kuwait were Western sattellites since second world war and even before that . The British occupied India with vast Muslim population for some 200 years , Russia the Central Asia for some 300 years !
Suicide bombings started only in 1983 or so !
It was picked up and perfected as a tactic in bewteeen 1990 and 2010 and now suicide bombing schools are doing what we were doing at Armor School , Infantry School , Artillery School , i.e churning out suicide bombers like we trained tankist infantry and gunners !
Occupation is a political act and to equate it with Islam or suicide bombings is naievette par excellence !
Lets suppose that US and NATO withdraws from Afghanistan and Iraq today and Russia leaves Chechnya and India leaves Kashmir ! Will it make this world a peaceful place ? It would create strategic anarchy !
The extremists would proclaim it as grand victory of Islam and multiply a million fold preparations for a new Jihad ! The powers that withdrew will be afflicted by another Vietnam syndrome and their eroded military virtues may produce far worse psychosis and paranoia than before the occupation ! The world would become a far more chaotic and unmanageable place ! Just because Pape writing for Foreign Policy wants it to be so !
It is time that we start reading Gibbons Decline and Fall of Roman Empire and Machiavellis Prince again rather than Foreign Policy !
Nothing in history is inevitable ! There are no chosen people ! God is neither with us or with them as Machiavelli had brilliantly summed up !
Every political problem has multiple facets ,hence complex multi faceted solutions ! Withdrawal in psychological terms leads straight to depression and suicide ! Withdrawal in strategic terms leads to the worse strategic nightmares ! The world is interlinked and inter dependent and solutions do not lie in withdrawal alone !
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Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." --
Albert Einstein !!!
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