For whom the bell tolls!

Dr Henry Kissinger, now in his agile eighties, is considered as past master in international diplomacy. If I distinctly remember in May 2011 he astounded the world by his prophetic forecast hearing sounding of ‘drums of war’ loud and clear. And subsequent events have changed the whole complexion of atmosphere in Middle East threatening implosion of peace. The cold bloodied murder of Iranian General Qasem Solemani—much the way Saudis got rid of journalist Kashogi is nothing but sounds like a death knell. General Qasem too was on a mission bound to promote peace and defuse explosive situation in the region when he was droned to death by the mad cowboy in the White House.

Now the world has been forced into a corner by both sides using dreadful threats to counter each other. The American bully much like Mulla Omar’s Taliban brigade has threatened to target 52 cultural sites in Iran as valuable as Bamiyan statues—each 1700 or more years old carved out in the Afghan mountains. Must give credit to President Trump for erasing the thin line between him the Taliban barbarians. It ceases the distinction between ruthless pagans and the so-called most civilised nation that would of course be remembered as the only nation that used atomic bomb to destroy its less powerful enemies.

As opposed to American war mongering, Iranian rulers are showing greater restraint, maturity and 5000 year-old wisdom in not rushing to retaliation much more viciously than the Americans. Although they have necessary wherewithal to at least eliminate American police man in the region —-Israel– responsible for all their troubles and instability. Among our Muslim sooth-seers we can not forget the forecasting of world coming to almost to an end by Dr Asrar Ahmed in one of his renowned Khutbas. Both he and Kissinger did forecast of a war between Iran and America as dreadfully imminent. I was sent a video recording of a lecture by late Dr Israr much before his death. Dr Israr’s video-tape had warned the Muslim Ummah of inevitable holocaust around soon to that would destroy the Arabs and the world would be drowned in a war like of which one had not seen before. Silver lining of his lecture was that while rich Arab Kings and Sheikhs would be annihilated, there would emerge new leadership from amongst Muslims—most probably from amongst the Afghans, Pakistanis or probably Iranians.

“The United States is baiting China and Russia, and the final nail in the coffin will be Iran, which is, of course, the main target of Israel. We have allowed China to increase their military strength and Russia to recover from Sovietization, to give them a false sense of bravado, this will create an all together faster demise for them. We’re like the sharp shooter daring the noob to pick up the gun, and when they try, it’s bang bang. The coming war will be so severe that only one superpower can win, and that’s us folks. This is why the EU is in such a hurry to form a complete super-state because they know what is coming, and to survive, Europe will have to be one whole cohesive state. Their urgency tells me that they know full well that the big showdown is upon us. O how I have dreamed of this delightful moment.’’—says Dr Kissinger. Next his advice is:“Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.”

Mr Kissinger then warned: “If you are an ordinary person, then you can prepare yourself for war by moving to the countryside and building a farm, but you must take guns with you, as the hordes of starving will be roaming. Also, even though the elite will have their safe havens and specialist shelters, they must be just as careful during the war as the ordinary civilians, because their shelters can still be compromised.”

The American diplomatic wizard Kissinger carries on: “We told the military that we would have to take over seven Middle Eastern countries for their resources and they have nearly completed their job. We all know what I think of the military, but I have to say they have obeyed orders superlatively this time. It is just that last stepping stone, i.e. Iran which will really tip the balance. How long can China and Russia stand by and watch America clean up? The Great Russian bear and Chinese Sickle will be roused from their slumber and this is when Israel will have to fight with all its might and weapons to kill as many Arabs as it can.

Dr Kissinger is so confident of his forecast that he hopefully claims as if all goes well, half the Middle East will be Israeli. ‘Our young have been trained well for the last decade or so on combat console games, it was interesting to see the new Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 game, which mirrors exactly what is to come in the near future with its predictive programming. Our young, in the US and West, are prepared because they have been programmed to be good soldiers, cannon fodder, and when they will be ordered to go out into the streets and fight those crazy Chins and Russkies, they will obey their orders. Out of the ashes we shall build a new society, a new world order; there will only be one superpower left, and that one will be the global government that wins. Don’t forget, the United States, has the best weapons, we have stuff that no other nation has, and we will introduce those weapons to the world when the time is right.” (End of interview).

Both the forecasts are horrendous and implosive. Dr Asrar’s forecast many years ago in which he had forecast of a biggest ever world war that would destroy the Arabs, America’s conflict with Iran and of course many decades later resurgence of a new Muslim leadership other than Arabs to revive the Islamic World. What I dread most is the possibility of Pakistan being pulled into it by the Americans. That would cause an implosion.  We should warn our civil and military leadership to keep Pakistan out of it at every cost. Unfortunately our leadership seems to be too subservient to the Americans and bending head over their heels to please them.

We must remember that we have around 20 pc Shia population that is educated, in top positions in various fields including the armed forces enjoying good ranks up to generals. If we allowed ourselves to be abused by the Americans in exchange of US dollars and guns, we would be stepping into a quagmire of Shia- Sunni implosion causing total anarchy or a civil war.Let’s hope sanity prevails, Parliament plays its role, intervenes to tame both civil and military leadership to restrain them from
becoming American stooges once again. We must remember we cannot afford to pay again the price of Afghan War that we waged as Jihad for the pursuit of geo-American political interest and destroyed ourselves. Unfortunately it were the seeds sowed by General Zia and later by General Pervez Musharraf for peanuts that converted Pakistan into strategic depth for the Taliban.

The growing threat perceptions appear to be growing in size by the hour. I hope our civilian leadership military do recognise the ideological divide in Pakistan that would burst at its seams the moment pressures goes beyond. I am glad to hear our Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made it categorically clear that Pakistan won’t take sides in the conflict.

Iran is fortunate to have historic roots many thousand years old. So far it has deployed age old diplomacy to counter American cow-boy trigger happy jingoism. It had performed feat of diplomacy when it reached a nuclear deal with Washington.

Regretfully out of his sheer frustration facing impeachment and his failure to provide sagacious leadership as a world power, President Trump is behaving like a low grade bully announcing openly that he would target 52 Iranian sites rich in culture. Whatever he said, he did sound like mad Taliban threatening to destroy two thousand year old Bamiyan Bhuddha statues—one 115 feet tall and other 174 feet tall. If he implemented his threat, the United States would be remembered in history as second only to Taliban in destruction of ancient and historic antiquities. American leadership will be singled out for war crimes.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is expected to ensure that Pakistan plays a positive role in de escalating the deterioration in the situation before it crosses edge of precipice. In order to prevent tension between Iran and the United States, the US has substantial Shias presence in Iraq and leverage to directly communicate with Shia regime of Iraq. The US should explore meaningful means to connect with Iraqi Government, Ayatullah Sistani and Shias to start trilateral communication mechanism between the US-Iraq-Iran.

Second important “Marja” in Najaf is a Pakistani origin- Ayatullah Bashir Najafi. Pakistani Shias has great influence through him in Iraqi government. The government may send a delegation to extend support for the unity of Iraq and prosperity of Iraqi people. The US may be asked if it could approach Russia to avoid direct conflict in South Western Syria, Buffer Zone between US and Iranian backed forces need to be established. The US may also approach Russia to ensure safe passage of all vessels in Strait of Hurmaz to send a message that Iran has no intention to engage in conflict with US forces present in the Gulf.

In order to reduce the growing tension, the US should press Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to immediately halt aryl attacks on Houthis in Yemen. Turkey can also play a positive role by allowing additional Iranian gas supplies to European markets. Pakistan may request President Trump to appoint a “Pacifist” Special Envoy to handle emerging Iranian crises and to give positive message to Iranian public.

Pakistan may also double its effort with the European partners of JCPOA to convince Washington to offer concessions to Iran to bring him on negotiating table.

Prime Minister Imran Khan is fond of travelling without much ado. For once he should travel to achieve something positive. He should visit immediately to Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia to show solidarity with the brotherly Muslim countries and show them olive branch, dissuaded them  from adding fuel to the fire.

Pakistan should sign a proposed MoU on Gawadar-Chabahar port to provide trade opportunities to Iranian businessmen especially during difficult times. Pakistan should not discontinue its civil aviation linkages for necessary supplies to Tehran. I am confident that I ran would continue to show restraint and would show its traditional maturity, resist from taking the bait to plunge the country into war on American provocation. Luke warm response to American war mongering is typical OF west’s docility and submission to might is right.  Except for Russia, Afghanistan, China and France, no other country, including Pakistan’s leadership full of hot air otherwise, had the guts to condemn the world’s most aggressive president behaving like a bull in a china shop. Islamabad should remember how frustrated it was when it found little support for Kashmir from our so-called Muslim friends despite having a just case against Indian aggression. Notwithstanding the fact that it is important for us to maintain ties with Washington when our Establishment keeps its hand stretched for American dole out, however, it is also important not to surrender our state sovereignty.