Arnaud de Borchgrave
UPI Editor at Large
Friday, Nov. 28, 2003

WASHINGTON (UPI) – Why don't moderate Muslims speak up in favor of President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair when they resolve "to crush global terrorists who hate freedom"? One of Pakistan's most respected former army chiefs supplied a chilling explanation this week: Because the "terrorists" are the "freedom fighters" of a "Muslim world facing unprecedented oppression and injustice."

Obstreperous is the way the Pakistani media refers to retired Gen. Aslam Beg. Harum-scarum would be more accurate. Mercifully, his finger is not anywhere near Pakistan's nuclear trigger. But it could be tomorrow or the next day should President Pervez Musharraf fall victim to a seventh attempt on his life.

In a lengthy e-mail, Beg said the Bush-Blair "strategy to combat global terrorism" is "a declaration of total war on freedom movements and it is the Muslim world that will be at the receiving end."

The anti-coalition resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan, as seen by Beg, is "a new reality emerging – a surging tide of their ιlan and vitality." By the standards of Pakistan's coalition of six politico-religious parties that govern two of Pakistan's four provinces, and hold 20 percent of the seats in the federal assembly, Beg is a moderate.

Musharraf estimates the number of extremists at "no more than 1 percent of the population." That's 1.5 million religious fanatics who are holding, according to Musharraf, "99 percent of the population hostage." But what happens when the moderates nuncupate – only to echo the extremists? That certainly appears to be the case of Beg, a soft-spoken man who is a leading geopolitical thinker in a country that is one of nine nuclear powers in the world. Pakistan is also a Muslim nation where anti-Americanism is the issue that unites all shades of political opinion.

Beg argues it is the United States that originally sponsored the rent-a-jihadi, or holy warrior, when the CIA sought the support of jihadis from all over the Muslim world to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Some 60,000 mujahedin passed through a system that was sponsored by the United States, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Their numbers are now growing daily, says Beg, and they "form the core of the global Muslim resistance ... engaged in fighting in Chechnya, Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan and Iraq."

"They are highly motivated, selfless and fearless people, obeying no earthly authority," he says, "they are hard to subdue by military force, and recognize no international borders in pursuit of their goals ... they have frustrated the designs of the two superpowers are surging forward to carve out their own destiny."

The Bush administration dismisses the "Islamic resurgence" by "maligning such liberation movements as terrorism," but, adds Beg, the United States will soon find that Iraq and Afghanistan are "quagmires" from which "safe exits" will become increasingly difficult.

As for Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaida, "all wars of liberation have splinter groups who lose sense of direction and indulge in wanton acts of terrorism." But the United States only has itself to blame. Because U.S administrations failed to grasp elementary psychiatry, as understood by the Pakistani general: "The substrata of human senses – the mental reality which constitutes the socio-cultural interpretations, and are the inner springs of individual and social behavior – are ironically overlooked.

The perceptions based on membership in marginalized groups, the deprived sensibility accumulated through sufferings, discriminations and denial of justice and fair play, dissolve hope and expectations and lead to what sociologists have termed anomie – a mental state where death or life ceases to have any meaning or relevance. In the war on terror, who are the culprits – the promoters of anomie or the perpetrators of violence?"

Beg's use of anomie is America's alleged lack of ethical values, which, in turn, begets violence, ergo bin Laden is not responsible for 9/11; America is. This is a switch on the still widely held belief in the Muslim world that the CIA and Mossad were co-conspirators in the 9/11 plot whose objective was to provide a rationale for military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This taradiddle also had its roots in Pakistan when Gen. Hamid Gul, a former head of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, a classmate of Beg, said he had evidence the U.S. Air Force was also involved in the plot (i.e., the fact that no U.S. fighter planes took off to shoot down the hijacked aircraft). Both Beg, the head of a think tank, and Gul, who is "strategic adviser" to politico-religious parties, are held in high regard by the Pakistani military.

Either way, the warped, apprentice sorcerer thinking goes a long way to explaining the recent Pew Foundation's survey on global attitudes toward the United States: As a trustworthy leader, bin Laden scored higher than George W. Bush in most Muslim countries.

There are no quick fixes for change. Despite all the constantly repeated assurances given to the United States about reform, Pakistan's madrasas, or religious schools, are still churning out 750,000 jihadi-prone male teenagers a year with the same hateful views of America, Israel and India. The fossilized clerics in charge have stood their ground – with Wahhabi clergy money still reaching them from Saudi Arabia.

An estimated total of 5 million young men have passed through the system over the past 13 years. The madrasas were the spawning grounds of Taliban. Today, a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan continues to enjoy the same logistical support – and casualty insurance.

Copyright 2003 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

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