By: Azhar Azam
Still living in the age of Nineties, Riedel is overwhelmingly obsessed by Pakistan, its military chiefs and premier spy agency, ISI. He is hitherto rejoicing the suspected killing of bin-Laden in Abbotabad, in a US marine operation that occurred nearly half a decade ago.
Pakistan, army heads, ISI, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hafiz Saeed are his “dearly-loved” areas of “intelligence” “and intellect” for 20-years or so; clearly envisages a truly bigotry Indian narrative. At the same time, Riedel never forgets to portray the Pakistan political elite as military “victims”; which should be self-exposing.
In his book “What We Won: America’s Secret War in Afghanistan 1979-1989”, he notes that this war “was entirely fought by other people and secretly supported by the CIA”. CIA suffered no casualties in Afghan-Soviet war because it never operated on the ground in Afghanistan. “We had no casualties because we took no risks.”
He goes on to admit that all the “principal risks and sacrifices were taken by the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan” and it was ISI that trained mujahedeen, strategized, and lead the war from front. “I know you all think that this was ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’, but “it was Zia-ul-Haq’s”.
Now if it was a war fought and sacrificed by the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Pakistan Army, ISI, and mujahedeen…why the United States has been commemorating the win over Soviet Union since long? Did you mean, the United States has been fooling its people on winning a war which they never fought, not a single American troop even stepped into the war zone?
In a column for The Indian Express, Riedel opined General Hamid Gul, ex-ISI superior, the “Terror’s godfather” who replaced General Akhtar Abdul Rehman, the mastermind of Afghan-Soviet war. Besides training to Afghan mujahedeen, he also accused Gul for tutoring “Muslim and Sikh terrorists”, “godfather for creation of Lashker-e-Toiba and a close associate of Hafiz Saeed” and meeting bin Laden, after leaving the army in 1991-92.
It is visibly a piece of an Indian expert in an Indian newspaper to secure Indian interests; doesn’t humanly compliment an advisor to various US presidents serving US interests. Indo-Pakistan conflict survived four wars primarily on Indian-occupied Kashmir since 1947 and USA-USSR cold war surfaced much latter 1979. So it sounds as just a wacky, goaded intent of him to muddle two entirely different discords; after impulsive US tilt toward India, aimed at his doorway to again befit in US administration that he lost before Obama’s second term of presidency.
Riedel also charged General Pervaiz Musharraf and General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayyani for playing on both sides, the United States and Afghan Taliban. But Robert Grenier, another CIA operator, conceded that General Musharraf never duped or double-crossed the United States in the aftermath of 9/11, in an interview with Daily Times.
“I can say with good authority that General Musharraf never double-crossed us”, instead evoked that he committed to help Americans well beyond the expectations, said Grenier. He goes on to corroborate that it was General Musharraf who passed on clear-cut instructions to ISI to give full-extent cooperation to CIA whether to convincing Mullah Omer expelling bin Laden or capturing Al-Qaida operatives.
Blaming Pakistan for duplicity, Riedel himself is playing double-game as he remains yet to assert himself either a US or Indian strategic and intelligence custodian. In an article in The Daily Beast, Riedel referred to anonymous “well-informed press and other acknowledgeable sources” to prove Pakistan’s ISI is behind the attack on Indian air force base at Pathankot through Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) “to prevent any détente between Pakistan and India”.
Again, a US resident stationed in Middle East, Riedel takes a shot on Pakistan army & ISI, deliberately avoiding politicians whereas a number of analysts, diplomats, and politicians have pronounced this attack as an “inside job”. Uri attack, like Pathankot is suspected to be an Indian false-flag operation and duly exposed by Veterans Today’s article “Kashmir: Why India Orchestrated the Drama of Uri Base Attack?”
“The Pakistani investigators were allowed to enter the military base from the narrow adjacent routes instead of main entrance and their duration of the visit was just 55 minutes, enough to take a mere walk through the airbase.”
But Riedel’s imaginary “sources” have conveyed him thousands miles away that Pakistani spy service is involved in Pathankot attack. Neither the people of Pakistan nor the people of the world are so gullible to fall in this faux and bogus argument.
Like many others, he reminds Pakistan of the “aids” of the United States. Don’t count the US aid on us which has only been politically manipulated, never reached to people and has only prevented Pakistan to grow independently. The money US paid in coalition support fund is merely a fraction of what Pakistan suffered on account of economic loss, over 100-billion dollar.
It is immaterial, how many the likes of Bruce Riedel, Carlotta Gall, Hussain Haqqani, Farid Zakaria or Kelvin Hulbert try to knock Pakistan off balance; Pakistan armed forces and ISI have demonstrated their resilience, capabilities, and valor to curb terrorism and maintaining peace not only in Pakistan but also across regions.
Wars are fought in the battlefield, not up there in the safe-houses by paying a few pennies and Pakistan soldiers, ALHAMDULILLAH, have won war on terror for their country, for your country and for every country in the world. All your malign contents will trash and Pakistan will continue to show up INSHALLAH.
Happy Crying!!!