The Deadly Blast in
Islamabad
Why was the Marriott
Targeted?
By TARIQ ALI
23/09/08 "Counterpunch"
-- - The deadly blast in Islamabad was a revenge attack for
what has been going on over the past few weeks in the badlands
of the North-West Frontier. It highlighted the crisis
confronting the new government in the wake of intensified US
strikes in the tribal areas on the Afghan border.
Hellfire missiles, drones,
special operation raids inside Pakistan and the resulting deaths
of innocents have fuelled Pashtun nationalism. It is this
spillage from the war in Afghanistan that is now destabilizing
Pakistan.
The de facto prime minister of
the country, an unelected crony of President Zardari and now his
chief adviser, Rehman Malik, said, "our enemies don't want to
see democracy flourishing in the country". This was rich coming
from him, but in reality it has little to do with all that. It
is the consequence of a supposedly "good war" in Afghanistan
that has now gone badly wrong. The director of US National
Intelligence, Michael McConnell, admits as much, saying the
Afghan leadership must deal with the "endemic corruption and
pervasive poppy cultivation and drug trafficking" that is to
blame for the rise of the neo-Taliban.
The majority of Pakistanis are
opposed to the US presence in the region, viewing it as the most
serious threat to peace. Why, then, has the US decided to
destabilize a crucial ally? Within Pakistan, some analysts argue
this is a carefully coordinated move to weaken the Pakistani
state by creating a crisis that extends way beyond the frontier
with Afghanistan. Its ultimate aim, they claim, would be the
extraction of the Pakistani military's nuclear fangs. If this
were the case, it would imply Washington was determined to break
up Pakistan, since the country would not survive a disaster on
that scale.
In my view, however, the
expansion of the war relates far more to the Bush
administration's disastrous occupation in Afghanistan. It is
hardly a secret that President Karzai's regime is becoming more
isolated each passing day, as Taliban guerrillas move ever
closer to Kabul.
When in doubt, escalate the war, is an old imperial motto. The
strikes against Pakistan represent - like the decisions of
President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, to bomb and then
invade Cambodia - a desperate bid to salvage a war that was
never good, but has now gone badly wrong.
It is true that those resisting
the Nato occupation cross the Pakistan-Afghan border with ease.
However, the US has often engaged in quiet negotiations with
them. Several feelers have been put out to the Taliban in
Pakistan, while US intelligence experts regularly check into the
Serena hotel in Swat to meet Maulana Fazlullah, a local
pro-Taliban leader.
Pashtuns in Peshawar, hitherto
regarded as secular liberals, told the BBC only last week that
they had lost all faith in the west. The decision to violate the
country's sovereignty at will had sent them in the direction of
the insurgents.
While there is much grieving for
the Marriott hotel casualties, some ask why the lives of those
killed by Predator drones or missile attacks are considered to
be of less value. In recent weeks almost 100 innocent people
have died in this fashion. No outrage and global media coverage
for them.
Why was the Marriot targeted?
Two explanations have surfaced in the media. The first is that
there was a planned dinner for the president and his cabinet
there that night, which was cancelled at the last moment.
The second, reported in the
respected Pakistani English-language newspaper, Dawn, is that "a
top secret operation of the US Marines [was] going on inside the
Marriott when it was attacked". According to the paper:
"Well-equipped security officers from the US embassy were seen
on the spot soon after the explosions. However, they left the
scene shortly afterwards."
The country's largest newspaper,
the News, also reported on Sunday that witnesses had seen US
embassy steel boxes being carried into the Marriott at night on
September 17. According to the paper, the steel boxes were
permitted to circumvent security scanners stationed at the hotel
entrance.
Mumtaz Alam, a member of
parliament, witnessed this. He wanted to leave the hotel but,
owing to the heavy security, he was not permitted to leave at
the time and is threatening to raise the issue in parliament.
These may be the motivations for
this particular attack, but behind it all is the shadow of an
expanding war.
Tariq Ali’s latest
book is ‘The
Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power.’
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