Communicating Arts - Main Web SiteKeep these principles of contemporary guerrilla warfare in mind:
- It takes very little armament and manpower to disrupt a city with incidental acts of violence;
- Simple chemistry and convenient packaging of "accelerants" have made bomb construction and delivery the equivalent of a basement or garage hobby--anyone can do it for any purpose anytime, anywhere;
- The deflection of responsibility for carnage and endangerment to a disciplined state's army--this applies every bit as well in Lebanon as it does in Pakistana and as it would elsewhere--and away from those whose actions bait and precipitate a state's response belies the character of militant personalities.
Political violence, any cause, not only Islamic, does not get more entrepreneurial or difficult than that for any state. For "noncombatants" or the less committed of civilians to either side, the effects are horrendous: death and maiming for those unlucky enough to catch the fury of a bomb, whether delivered by a lone human on a street corner or dropped as part of a military sortie; intimidation, restricted freedom in expression, lifestyle, and movement if not homelessness, financial ruin, and hunger for those responding to the threat of violence that may come to them.
Four years of violence in Iraq sustained by self-appointed militias, competitive Al Qaeda operations, and no doubt muddied by states who further their agendas through proxies, has not produced anything like an Islamic peace except in those neighborhoods successfully policed by American, Iraqi, and now more frequently Iraqi Sunni forces.
Late last month, no less a "fiery" figure, also a charismatic one, than Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stood down his militia, such as he could do so, for lack of control over them in light of the spectacle of Muslims killing Muslims assembling for religious celebration.
Incoherent and inconsistent violence makes for the worst violence on earth when it comes from other than nature.
Too many places on earth, from Morocco to Lebanon to Somalia, today stand as signal to the harvest of intramural violence in Islam: would some mosques fall because of Americans or Jews and legitimize so many prejudiced claims, but they don't--instead, suicide bombers, truck bombs, and placed detonations produced and delivered by Muslims do that dispicable work; would that humanitarian care and political integration in the Arab world come first for Muslims--instead, the incurably romantic Fatah al-Islam at Nahr al-Bared in Lebanon literally brought down the roof on the homes of 31,000 Palestinians.
Pakistan hosts a colorful proto-democratic politics beneath President Musharraf's velvet dictatorship. You could practically say it ranges from the outlaws to the inlaws, certainly from the fundamentalist communities to the lone socialite socialist who, rightly, I think, would rather his country deal more vigorously with cholera than fray its threads on the bitter edges of civil war.
As I am new to this--i.e., using the Internet to delve into international culture and politics--the country seems to have a bit of a colonial complex: a part of its leadership mill through St. Patrick's for high school and enjoy the benefits of the western exuberance and wealth, which they want to bring to their people, while another part rejects the western component while nonetheless courting sympathy from the same in defense of communal organization and the one true path (or else!).
Some of what distills out seems clear enough: "Kalashnikov Sharia" is a phrase picked up from a responder to a Pakistani blog, not my invention. Some political bloc of Pakistanis well know what they do not want.
Add to it the delightful "Busharraf"--also not mine. It perfectly echoes the AntiBushies (mine) in the U.S. and with similar, possibly healthy, contempt for the authority du jour.
One hopes as Musharraf goes forward with elections, retires his stars, and (one also hopes) rejects fascist, religious, and socialist zealots alike that the Pakistani people will express themselves as a force for freedom, moderation, and peace and deal themselves simply greater ability to head off, resist, and stand off violence independently sourced.
1. FRANCE24-EN-DEBATE-PAKISTAN-POLITICS-FOR-PEACE, France24, September 6, 2007.
Correspondence and Permissions: James S. Oppenheim
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