The Russian occupation of Afghanistan in 79, and the brutal repression of the Afghan ruling family using the Communist credo of elimination of the ruling class, gave the US the opportunity to launch their attack on the 'evil' regime as the communists were known to the rest of the world. Since the Bolshevik revolution, the West maintained and nurtured this spread of hatred against the Communists both Russian and Chinese. With the Russian move into Afghanistan the plan to suck them in deeper came about. The Russians brought in their heavy guns, tanks, artillery, mortars and gunships. While the poor Afghans were on foot or horseback. With their equipment carried across the mountains on mules and by men. The American CIA along with the Saudis prepared a comprehensive plan based on casting the Russians as the hated infidels, and the Islamic forces as the Mujahideen - or holy warriors. The Script was tailor-made for a bitter fight casting the high tech versus the low tech, man versus machine. The Afghans, Tajiks, Pashtuns, Pakistanis were the bulk of the footsoldiers, taking horrific losses in men. In fact in the Northern areas, and in Afghanistan, there are very few families that have not suffered a casualty or a horrible mutilation. In 1988 when the Geneva Accord was signed - much against Gen Zia's wishes, the Gen's opposition marked his removal from the stage, and he along with the US Ambassador went down in flames in a C 130, leaving no survivors nor any clues as to the cause of the crash. The Russian Empire having been successfully dismantled, the world became unipolar with the US going on to dominate the rest of the world. However, the US in their haste to leave, unleashed a huge heavily armed trained force, unemployed, and worse no enemy to face. So the Mujahideen feeling discarded, decided that the US was the new infidel. With the fury over 9/11 and the American bombing of Afghanistan into the stone age, and the Americans with their media going into hyper-drive over the now wicked Mujahideen. The US did not realize that in their discarding an uncompensated ally, theirs was an outstanding debt of honour. Leaving the Afghans distraught and destitute and heavily armed, alongside a similarly angry, long suffering Pathan area, it gave the Mullahs an opportunity to roil against the US, and to target the West as the new infidel. And so the matters progressed, with the Pakistani army being dragged into the war, Pakistan became the recipient of the fury of the Mujahideen. Luckily for Pakistan the savagery displayed by the militants against the Pathan civilians spread disgust amongst the locals, and even the Mullahs eventually had to bow to the people's anger at the depravity shown by the militants. The Pathan and the Mullah have finally realized that this bestiality is not the stuff of the Koran. Daily in the Northern areas the public is banding together, to hunt down the militants. For once the Pathan realizes he has been had, he can be as savage as anyone else. Especially when he has been on the receiving end. Revenge is something the Pathan is very good at exacting, and the militants are already getting rid of their beards, and their weapons. The soil had turned against the invader, and the local was now fighting for his motherland - the best of all motives. The Pathans having decided on their course of action and will clear the militants out their areas - with a vengeance, for they now know that the whole militant movement was a charade, and had nothing to do with Islam. If at all, they are Kafirs, for having sinfully invoked the name of God to commit the most heinous of crimes. We, in Pakistan are lucky because our silent majority has been proved to be right, and they are throwing their weight against the militants, becoming more vocal in the process. The JI finds itself on the wrong side. Imran Khan's PTI is also distancing itself from the excesses of the militants. This swing of the pendulum has finally brought Pakistan and the US together on the same side with the militants isolated by their own actions. Now it is the foreign funding for the militants that must be cut off, and the US has the technology to track these funds. Similarly the Governments involved in supplying weapons to the militants if only to embarrass us further, should be stopped from doing so. As President Zardari has said, Pakistan losing to the militants is not an option. The stakes are too high for everyone.