Wikileaks – Our own truth

On May 2, 2011, the US SEALs carried out the now nefarious mission to kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad without knowledge of our armed forces or government until what seems like the last moment. We as a nation woke up in an outrage. We were upset because our territorial sovereignty had been challenged, we were upset because we were never told. Our news anchors on every channel frothed at the mouth as they told us that our army was demoralised, that this was equal to the fall of Dhaka that we had been sold and compromised.

Enter the end of the same month and the WikiLeaks concerning Pakistan are now under scrutiny. We have had access to them as a nation for some time since their release, but for some reason have just woken up to their importance. Lo and behold they tell us that since 2009 not only are our government and military in tacit knowledge of drone attacks and US military activity in Waziristan but have also conducted not just training but actual ground missions with allied troops help as well, albeit not with American boots on the ground but their birds in our skies. We are yet again outraged. We cannot stomach the fact that our military and government knew all along and still kept us in the dark.

I ask you dear readers, do you blame our military or government? We as a nation are outraged when we don’t know and outraged when we do. We see every angle, every unseen hand but we cannot see the one that is trying to kill us from within. We talk of the collateral damage of these drone attacks in every living room of our cities whenever we get the chance but we conveniently forget to mention the 89 Pakistanis who died in last week’s suicide attack by the TTP.

Nay let me be more blunt, we are willing to accept the murder of 89 of our fellow Pakistanis at the hands of the militants who want to destroy our way of life but we are unwilling to let these militants die in drone attacks because the planes that do the job are not ours.

If this is our morality it is extremely twisted at best. It is quite tragic too that we have completely forgotten that we are at war with these militants. They are not going to stop until either us or them lays on the ground dead. So when the Ambassador of the US in a WikiLeaks released cable said on February 19, 2009 that “Kayani knows full well that the strikes have been precise (creating few civilian casualties) and targeted primarily at foreign fighters in the Waziristan” we should realise that she is speaking from our side.

I think it’s about time that we as a country understand that our establishment engages in saber rattling because we are unwilling to accept the truth. After all if any one of us had a choice of getting the enemy from up above or sending troops on the ground where some of us might die, we all know which route we would ourselves choose don’t we? The pacifists can go on chanting their mantras of “we don’t need this American war” but we all know that the only way out of this is to finish those against this country by any means possible.

What I am not willing to see any longer is my land desecrated by the blood of my countrymen who are being slaughtered by foreign militants. I am not willing to let this constantly hanging sword of Damocles threaten mine and my loved ones security anymore. I am not willing to sit and cry over the Leaks which tell me what I have known all along. I want to see results and if they come at a faster rate with US involvement let’s go for it now, while there is still a Pakistan to fight for and save. Don’t you agree?

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As published in The Dawn Blog on 21st may 2011