al-Qaeda vs al-Qaeda

Tom Cooper

Hello everybody!

Sometimes there are stories that are so inspirational, I simply can’t but start writing.

This is one of such stories.

Three JF-17s of the PAF. Most of air strikes in Afghanistan are flown by JF-17s from Quetta-based No. 28 Squadron, PAF.

The last few days, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) is bombing the western side of its own country and well into Afghanistan. Reportedly, up to 30 different ‘targets’ have been struck - mostly by Chinese-made LS-6 satellite guided bombs - and at least 46 people killed so far: 30 when the PAF hit the village of Khyber Pakthunkhwa.

And then, about 20 hours ago, the PAF flew an air strike on Kabul (for those who might have forgotten about this: that’s the capitol of Afghanistan, which since 2021 is ruled by the Pakistan-created Taliban), and the official Islamabad went on to claim to have killed Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, a charming bloke that’s the chieftain of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP; Pakistani Taliban).

If I’m not wrong, this is a photo of Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud - after winning the vaunted ‘Favourite Neighbour of the Year’-Award in Vöcklamarkt, in Upper Austria, the last year…

The Mufti then released a statement that he’s well and alive... while, I guess, Field Marshal Munir is currently on the phone to Dumpf, explaining him that this is confirming his country’s need for AIM-120D-3 active radar homing air-to-air missiles...

But wait... to make things particularly bizarre, a nerd like me can’t miss concluding that it’s near-impossible to say who there is maintaining closer ties to al-Qaeda:

- the Pakistan’s military regime led by Field Marshal Munir and Lieutenant-General Chaudhry, whose fathers were friends of Osama Bin Laden and supplying him (and al-Qaeda) with the know-how and materials for making a ‘dirty bomb’, and

- on behalf of which the al-Qaeda in the South (of Asia; i.e. the AQIS) recently (in May this year) declared a war on India; or

- the TTP, which already back in around 2015 or so has declared a war on The Establishment (the military-centred conglomerate presently controlled by Munir and actually ruling Pakistan and controlling its economy, too).

AQIS’ official decleration of war on India, as issued by the as-Sahab Media (AQ’s official media wing), from 7 May this year.

With other words: this is something like al-Qaeda vs al-Qaeda War, caused by The Establishment in Pakistan happily setting its own hair afire... which... - well, I’ve warned everybody I can get quite gleeful, long ago - is making a tiny part of me feeling with the CIA-operatives deployed in the country: with whom shall they side now...?

***

And now seriously-seriously…

The root reason for this war is manifold. On one side, The Establishment in Pakistan is convinced it needs ‘strategic depth’ in its never-ending war on India (which is meanwhile more important to such like Munir, than the well-being of Pakistan). Therefore, for decades already, Pakistan is striving to bring Afghanistan under its control. That’s why the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI; the top intel service of Pakistan) established its Afghan Bureau already back in 1971. That’s why the ISI then supported the seven local Islamist parties (see: ‘Mujaheddin') in their struggle against the Soviet military intervention and, when these won that war, and toppled the communist regime, in 1992, but then began fighting each other, Pakistan - i.e. the Inter-Service Intelligence - created the Taliban.

That’s also why in the 1990s the ISI was in alliance with al-Qaeda: this was cooperating with the Taliban, which were commanded and supplied by the ISI, and striving to bring all of Afghanistan under their control.

…at least until 9/11, and then the US/NATO military intervention of late 2001: indeed, after the 9/11, the US President George Bush Jr., essentially, offered the contemporary military dictator of Pakistan, General Musharraf, two choices: either he withdraws support for the Taliban, or the USA are going to bomb Pakistan (in addition to bombing the Taliban in Afghanistan).

However, if you think this all began just back in the 1980s… or in 1971.. oh-ho-ho-ho. That’s sweet but wrong. Mind that back in 1947, the Afghan government was fiercely against the United Nations accepting Pakistan as a member. Or that it was already in the 1970s that the Pakistani military dictator Zia-ul-Haq ordered the ISI to start recruiting ‘friendly’ Afghans, organising, training and arming them, before sending them to the country to destabilise the government of President Dawood Khan: the USA became involved - and ‘the war in Afghanistan thus began “only” in 1979’ - just because of the Soviet intervention.

Point is: as much as created by the ISI, the Taliban - regardless if those emerging from Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan of the 1990s, or if it’s these modern-day Pakistani Taliban of the TTP - are an entity of the Pashtuns, and the Pashtuns are, generally, fiercely anti-Pakistan (which, BTW, is dominated by the Punjabi elites).

Find yourself some, check with them: it doesn’t matter if they are Islamists, jihadists, communists, secularists, republicans, or monarchists: the Pashtuns all hate Pakistan. So much so, they are more hostile to Pakistan than all the 1.5 billion of Indians combined. For them, the international ‘border’ between Afghanistan and Pakistan is a laugh, and therefore, The Establishment in Islamabad and its attempts to bring Afghanistan under its control is making it their worst enemy ever. …even if, back in August 2021, when the US/NATO were withdrawing from Afghanistan, leaving it at the mercy of the Taliban, ‘half the Pakistan’ was celebrating with the Taliban…

…perhaps ‘ironically’: the very same Pakistanis are nowadays hating the Taliban from the bottom of their hearts, and can’t stop complaining that the TTP is a terrorist organisation with ties to al-Qaeda.