Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, while speaking on Defence and Martyrs Day on September 6, has pointed out that the nature of warfare is changing. He stressed that the use of modern technology and the latest tools of communication were being used to penetrate into a country’s borders, target and weaken its ideology, and spread despair among its people. He further added that the enemies were engaged in non-traditional means like propaganda and disinformation to achieve their ill objectives. “It is a moment of reflection for all of us that some people are being used by anti-state elements. This is called hybrid or fifth-generation war (in common language). Its purpose is to make Pakistan’s roots hollow and damage the country’s unity.”
This is not the first time that the top leadership of the armed forces have alerted the nation about the changing patterns of modern warfare. These tactics have excessively been used against Pakistan during both peace and crisis situations to spread ‘saffronised’ versions of developments taking place on the domestic, regional and international levels. The unexpected turn of events in Afghanistan and subsequent complaints of Indian media seem to have once again prompted General Bajwa to make it clear that “we will never let these negative objectives succeed”.
Interestingly, it is not the Indian media alone this time. The Western and American media, too, are harping the same tunes to cover up their long march of follies in Afghanistan.
These media houses are obsessed with the preconceived role of Pakistan behind any development on either side of Pakistan’s eastern or western borders. Their think tanks, which thrive and pride on manufacturing truths on payment, find it hard to reconcile with the facts as they are, hence the interpretation of the Afghanistan debacle and the picture being portrayed by the western as well as the Indian media came as no surprise to anyone familiar with their irresistible urge to malign Pakistan for their own failures.
First, they complained about Pakistan not doing enough to eliminate Taliban from Afghanistan, then not bringing the Taliban on the negotiation table and finally perhaps not extracting a favourable deal from them at Doha. Pakistan is not part of the problem; the real problem is the inability of the American establishment to arrive at rational conclusions and take appropriate decisions. Pakistan has paid more than it owed to the US’ past mistakes and miscalculations. It needs to be seen as a sovereign and independent state. Like any other state, it has its genuine security concerns and national interests associated with developments on its borders. And it has every right to protect and safeguard its interests. It is strange that these people have been more concerned about ensuring India’s role and protecting her interest in Afghanistan all along, while altogether ignoring Pakistan’s sacrifices. What is wrong if Pakistan wants to frustrate the objectives of its greatest rival in Afghanistan? How is it different from what all other states do? And look at the “noble” objective as described by Wall Street Journal; imposing a secular government in Afghanistan?
Indian media, in particular, has been blinded by their hatred towards Pakistan. They are always ready to blame Pakistan for whatever bad befalls them, and certainly they could not have let this opportunity go to waste. In their eagerness to blame Pakistan for Taliban’s besiegement of Kabul and then Panjshir, they have been (mis)reporting on fake or irrelevant videos. Just to give an example, their reputed news channels were showing a video of a twin-tailed fighter jet flying over what they called Panjshir. They were hell-bent in proving that it was a Pakistani jet which was assisting the Taliban in clearing the resistance in Panjshir. In their flurry of madness, both media anchors and retired generals forgot to confirm whether or not Pakistan had these types of fighters in its inventory.
The American media needs to highlight how their establishment ignored the sane and realistic assessment about the Afghan government’s war machinery. Pakistan’s military leadership has repeatedly been warning American counterparts that the way Afghan forces have been raised and trained would not be helpful in resisting any threat to Kabul. Mr Vali Nasr, who was Advisor to Richard Holbooke, has revealed that General Kayani was sure about the Afghan army’s eventual collapse. “I cannot forget Kayani’s reaction when we enthusiastically explained our plan to build up Afghan forces to 400,000 by 2014. His answer was swift and unequivocal: Don’t do it. You will fail, he said.” General Ihsan, who has served as Director General of ISI and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee in a recent interview to the Arab News also confirmed that the Americans were not prepared to listen to any sane advice after 9/11. Similarly, Mr Ajit Doval, mockingly dismissed the assessment of Pakistan’s senior military officials (he claimed to have met more than a dozen) about the fighting capacity of Afghan armed forces. Instead of admitting their flawed assessment of the evolving situation, they find it convenient to blame Pakistan for all that they did not want to see in Afghanistan. This obsession with the ISI seems to be no more limited to the anti Pakistan lobbies in the Indian establishment. It has now been successfully injected into news studios, chat rooms and think tanks impairing their ability to analyse issues in a sensible manner.
General Bajwa’s assessment has drawn basic parameters of future media strategy and narrative building. When he talks of “some people being used by anti-state elements”, he is undoubtedly alluding to south bloc briefs and RAW briefcases. Our armed forces, law enforcement agencies, and other government institutions, particularly the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, need to be alert at all times and be steadfast in exposing and countering these lies. As a nation we must all remain vigilant about the newest tactics being employed by our enemy and not allow our minds to be polluted by the enemy’s evil agenda. We must be the first to tell the world our story in our own words rather than leaving any information gap for others to fill.
Sohaib Ahmad Barlas
The writer is a freelance journalist and can be contacted at sabarlas1992@yahoo.com.