Apparently, President Asif Zardari was the subject of a conspiracy. While he was in the USA, the Prime Minister and the COAS were posturing behind him, pretending that they mattered in the War on Terror, what with the attack on the tribal areas, and the preceding speech to the nation, and the chairing of the corps commanders meeting. For a start, the operation had already started, with people in the Swat Valley already having offered, not the supreme sacrifice (reserved these days for American Drone attacks), but the sacrifice implicit in becoming a Displaced Person and having to go and stay in a tent village. But the Prime Minister apparently thought it necessary to 'take the nation into confidence. Not to mention the corps commanders meeting, which was almost a picture of the future. After a takeover, that is. Hopes are rising that the President was inept enough to win approval in Washington for the idea that only the true defenders of the nation are capable of running it. All of this created the impression that the President was having fun in the USA, while his PM and the COAS were busy tackling the situation he had left behind. Nothing could be further from the truth. The real victim of any conspiracy was Rehman Malik, for the PM and the COAS were trying to create the impression that there was more to the War than Rehman Malik, who so far has taken the burden of the War alone on his shoulders. Rehman Malik, who is with the President, is taking a break from the fighting, and tackling another dimension of the War, in trying to get Dr Afia Siddiqui released. If the Americans, and the Europeans, were to get the impression that Rehman Malik was not fighting the War, but their soldiers were, then his parties would probably not get the visas they now regard as their right. The result would not be good for the President, who would not have them to fall back on when he had to make any speeches in English, but would probably have to rely on any rappers within the family. However, with the current fighting going on in the Swat valley, the wrong impression is being created that the Army is fighting the War on Terror, even though Rehman Malik is not just the lead warrior, but really the sole warrior, in the War, and it is not possible to think of the War going on without him. If he is in the USA with the President, then he must be there because the War took him there, so now we know that the War must be on American soil once again, where it all started. But we also know that the militants are being fought in Swat, and we know this because of the tanks that are rolling in there, and the DPs that are rolling out. And we also know that the Army will succeed in clearing the Valley of militants, because we have not fallen prey to the false propaganda that has been spread about the Army since 1971, when nothing happened, nothing at all. But the PM probably doesnt realize, and the military certainly doesnt, that all of this moving around Swat will not be of any use until Rehman Malik comes back. Only then will the true results really be known. Until then, the operation is a conspiracy against him. These Notes are being written on an occasion for which the War is being fought, Mothers Day. Well, we know that anyone who opposes this day being turned into a tasteless opportunity for advertisements and promotion of essentially useless products is obviously someone who will blow himself up as soon as he enters a government installation, presumably in Swat, or maybe Multan, where the PM was upholding local tradition by making sure that the floors were full, being on the mandatory weekend visit there, presumably to the constituency. Note thiswell, it must be nonchalance, rather than indifference to the events in Swat, though indifference would be justified until Rehman Malik is back. The War on Terror is being fought because it is the inalienable right of every human being to buy, buy and buy, no matter how tasteless the ads which have persuaded him to do the buying, and irrespective of whether the product does what the ad claims it will do. The War on Terror is about economic liberalization, so that the boons of capitalism are spread to the Third World, just enough so that it can keep the First World on its self-indulgent jag of conspicuous consumption, and not complain too much. So, remember, Zardari, Obama and Rehman Malik are fighting for Mothers Day. Not Mothers, but Mothers Day. And all the ads it generates.