Pakistan…whoa, have you got troubles.


Problems, you got problems...


I know I’ve been a little obsessive about Pakistan, lately. And maybe I’ve been a little too obviously enjoying that country’s discomfort following the victory of their “friends” the Taliban. But, I have reason for my schadenfreude. After all, the Pakistani government, or more precisely, its Inter-Services Intelligence agency (which is almost a state within a state), supported the Taliban in a war against Americans for a long time. It was the ISI et al, in fact, who helped create the Taliban in the first place, and have kept it alive for almost twenty years. 

And there’s the issue of Osama Bin Laden. Tell me, again, about how the ISI and Pakistan’s other security services didn’t know he was living less than a mile from the Pakistan Military Academy. Yeah. Right. 


So, maybe I can be forgiven if I find myself emitting a grim little chuckle when I read that Maulana Abdul Aziz, the Imam of the Lal Masjid mosque and madrassa complex, has been “encouraged” by the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan and is now calling for a similar take-over by Islamists in Pakistan.


Aziz has a long history of inciting violence against the Pakistani state and against secularists. The Lal Masjid complex was the scene of a bloody confrontation between his militants and Pakistan’s military. It ended after many deaths and Aziz’s arrest. But, for some bizarre reason, he was released and has continued his activities. 


And now, the Taliban’s triumph in Afghanistan has given Aziz and his followers new energy. 


Gee, do you suppose, just maybe, in a few dark rooms in Islamabad, there might…perhaps…be a few government officials wondering just how Pyrrhic a victory can get before you just start calling it an abject disaster.



~mjt




Source: “Radical leader of Pakistan’s Red Mosque emboldened by Taliban takeover of Afghanistan,” by Pamela Constable, Washington Post, Sep 25, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistan-red-mosque-taliban/2021/09/24/e6d0c0ec-1b50-11ec-bea8-308ea134594f_story.html











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