Of historical interest. An old letter to the editor that Major Amin wrote in 2001 before 9-11 happened. At the end I have also added an excerpt from his book (written in 2012) about the grand American strategic failure in Afghanistan.
Letter to the Editor, from Major Amin (in response to some story about Chechens and our Islamic duty to help them).ย
The Afghanistan analogy is not applicable to Chechnya. TheRussians withdrew from Afghanistan not because they weremilitarily defeated but because Gorbachev rightly assessed thatstaying on was not cost effective (Pages-207 & 208- Out ofAfghanistan-Cordovez and Harrison-Oxford-1995). Chechnya is analtogether different case because Russian presence there is costeffective because of Chechen oil! The political situation in Russia isonce again stabilising. The Communists are once again regainingstrength while Putin is likely to emerge as a strong statesman. Noamount of statements from the OIC can change the situation. If theRussians are ignoring the OSCE and USA why should they botherabout OIC! Why should Iran surrounded by three hostile or potentially hostile neighbours and one super power which every yearallocates funds to destabilise Iran antagonise the Russians ; theironly trustworthy ally!
Where is Islam in case of Kurds! How many Kurds have diedfighting Iranian Iraqi and Turkish armies since the last one hundredyears! I think ten times more than total number of Chechens killedfrom January 1999! Where is the Islam of the Islamic Contact Groupin case of Kurds who are condemned for eternity to be subjects ofIran, Iraq and Turkey. The first modern Chemical Warfare attackwas carried out against the Iraqi Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war!Where was Islam when genocide was committed in 1971 by aMuslim (a misconceived misnomer!) Army against the BengaliMuslims! Religion, ideology etc is nothing but cheap toolsemployed by the ruling elite to galvanise and drug the masses! Themiddle class and the feudal clique of UP and Punjab becameinterested in Muslim separatism only once their class interests werethreatened with competitive examinations and concepts of Britishdemocracy! The same was true for the Hindu middle and businessclasses that joined the congress! They thought that they would
succeed the British Viceroys in ruling entire India! Hinduism wasonly a slogan, just as was the case with the Muslim elite! Religion isa good slogan but only a slogan! Democracy ends immediatelywhen Muslims leave the Mosque! Lip service is paid but that iswhere Islam ends!
It will be good for our intellectual health if we forget about PanIslamism and try to set our own house in order! So far we havemiserably failed even to stay as one nation in case of East Pakistan!Today we have the smaller ethnic group’s issue which is intricate aswell as genuine and demands good statesmanship which is sadlylacking both in India and Pakistan ! Both have been termed as ‘failedstates’ by political scientists ! Both have a history of using coercive power of a modern state against smaller ethnic groups e.g. Kashmir1989-2000, East Pakistan-1971 , Balochistan 1958-64, Balochistan1974-77 etc etc. Both the states have been steadily involved in anarms race that will end only once a war limited or total is finallyfought . A dispassionate study of history proves that men are butvictims of currents of history and cannot change the tide of history!Europe learned its lesson after two world wars and is saner ! Chinalearned its lesson from 1911-1949 and is now saner ! UnfortunatelyPakistan and India have fought small wars ; petty skirmishes bywestern standards in which total casualties of each side was less than10,000 killed. That is why both have hawks; theoretical hawks Iwould say; arm chair strategists; Don Quixote’s who think thatKashmir can we won (Pakistan) or retained (India)! The motivationof the ruling elite on both sides is ulterior! Its not ideology Islam orsecularism but ego, powers, lusts for glory! Bismarck’s does not leadthem or Churchill’s but myopic men with limited vision, short-termgoals and personal agendas advised by dark horse adventistintelligence agencies! Sundarji called them blind men of Hindustan ;a better name may be ‘Blind men of Hind-o-Pak’! These are
shortsighted men who have not understood what General Shermansaid at Atlanta after the US Civil War i.e. ‘there are many a boyshere who think of war as glory, but it is hell!’ As a soldier I wish that both the countries should either fight it out so that we at leastdiscover (I would say rediscover or confirm as far as ex soldiers areconcerned!) The qualitative efficiency of our general officers orarrive at a settlement! Otherwise it’s a never-ending game of musicalchairs, which the ruling elite of both the countries is making thecommon man play! The qualities of generalship and mediocrity inhigher ranks on both sides have been well proved in 1947-48, 1965and 1971! 2000 if it proves decisive will inshaallah prove as noexception.
And lastly Pan Islamism is dangerous . It is better if we concentrateon setting our own house in order.
Major A.H Amin(Retired)
An excerpt from Major Amin’s book:ย
The Mullah who was at the lowest rung of the society was elevated and the traditional leaders of Pashtun society eliminated and destroyed. Basically the Pakistani leadership likethe usurper Zia comprised of men with humble origins preferred pliable Afghans withhumble origins who would obey the third rate ISI major again from lower middle classhumble origins.
Afghan resistance in Pakistan was thus led by Panjsheri puncturemen previously repairingtyres in Kabul , obscure and humble Mullahs like Haqqani and failed engineering universitydropouts with no tribal standing like Hekmatyar. It suited the Pakistanis and their Americanfathers to deal with non entities who could be moulded and manipulated.The Americans were funding people like Zia who was selling eggs to survive with 250 and400 milion dollars annually. It is a white lie to think that the Americans stepped in after theDecember 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.US and British assistance to the bastardchild Zia military regime started in 1978 and early 1979. The Pakistanis and Americansbrought all types of mad dog Islamists to Pakistan for the so called Afghan Jihad.Nowpeople like Bruce Riedel are blaming and attacking the same characters patronized by theUS in 1980s as Al Qaeda and Islamic extremists. Islamist volunteers were brought by theISI,CIA and Saudi GID to Pakistan because the Afghan mercenaries enlisted by the ISI werenot fighting as ruthlessly as their ISI handlers wanted them to fight. It is ironic that IslamicJihad was transformed into a global cause under CIA stewardship. Characters like HafizSeed , today topping the US hate list were groomed and gained prominence during the CIA-ISIGID Afghan war. HAMAS was established in 1987 with Abdullah Azzam as one of itsideals.
After 1989 Jihad in Afghanistan degraded into a Pakistani version of Jihad. The JihadsAmerican fathers had abandoned Jihad in 1989 after the Soviet withdrawal. The Iraq war of1991 was a watershed event. From 1991 Afghan war assumed a more Pakistani and Saudishape. Mujahideen were increasingly patronized and were replaced with Taliban who weremore rabidly Islamist Pakistani Saudi proxies.Again from the lowest and humblest sectionsof AfghanPashtun society.Men who would readily obey their ISI handlers without anydissent. Pakistans civilian prime minister Nawaz Sharif was an ISI creation and a man withlimited vision.The other civilian prime minister Benazir Bhutto was a subject of ISI blackmail thanks tosome scandalous material gathered by the ISI cheap operatives in the Zia era. BenazirBhuttos handpicked Interior Minister Naseerullah Babar was spiritual Godfather of the maddog Islamist Talibans in Afghanistan.
Benazir Bhutto had no control on Pakistans intelligence in both her tenures and the ISIdid as it pleased in Afghanistan and India.A sad reflection on a supposed secular andeducated prime minister who claimed that she was the best guarantee against Islamicextremism in the region. Hafiz Saeed now much hated by the CIA grew in stature inBenazirs two tenures as prime minister ! It is hilarious when one reads about Benazirsclaims as the wests best bet against Islamic extremism in her last book !
When the Americans ditched the ISI after 1989 , the ISI found a new patron in theKashmir Jihad in shape of China. The Chinese feared that an independent Kashmir would bea US base against China and had decided in late 1980s to support Kashmiri separatists whowanted accession with Pakistan.
The period 1988-2000 was the golden period of ISIs Kashmir War. Ex DG ISI LTG Ziauddinnarrated to this scribe that Pakistan Army regulars and ISI regulars were fully involved inthe Kashmir Jihad and participated in deep penetration raids in Indian Occupied Kashmir.Meanwhile the 8 years of Bill Clinton in the USA from 1992 to 2000 were a total foreignpolicy disaster and during these 8 years the US had literally no Afghan policy. MonicaLewinsky no doubt was a high priority for Bill Clinton. While Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaedatrained and regrouped in Afghanistan the Americans were just sleeping .But now theiranalysts like Riedel brand Pakistan as worlds most dangerous country. It is an ISI and CIAachievement that characters like Mulla Omar became Afghanistans key leaders.Humble menwith no political status were elevated to Afghanistans power brokers just because they weregood sons of some ISI major commanding an ISI detachment ! This is history ! Charismaand power comes when a man sells his soul and works for some one.No tribute to MullaOmars personality.The very word Mulla signifies a mans lowest social status in Pashtunsociety. A large part of what analysts like Riedel now define as Islamic terrorism wascreated by the CIA in its notorious partnership with ISI and CIA in 1980-90. While the USabandoned Afghanistan and Pakistan in the period 1990-2001 , the Pakistani ISI sawAfghanistan as a giant training camp to train ISI proxies for the war in Indian occupiedKashmir.Thus the rise of the Taliban from 1994 to 2001. American policy makers weresimply sleeping during this period and today the Americans are simply paying the price fortheir naive complacency.
A.H Amin
