Pak Army Chief Gets ‘A’ for Honesty in Expressing Disdain for Afghans

Munir
Michael Hughes
January 27, 2024
Ex-Afghan spy chief and former VP, Amrullah Saleh, has applauded Pakistan’s military chief for refusing to conceal how Rawalpindi really feels about Afghanistan. Earlier this week, Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir bluntly said when it comes to Pakistan’s security, “the whole of Afghanistan can be damned.”
“The only aspect of surprise is the way this statement has been conveyed so loud and clear to the public. Gen. Asim Munir’s clarity, however bitter, makes things easier not harder,” Saleh said in a post on X on January 26. “The trouble was always in the sweetness of their diplomatic words and the poisonous actions of their deep state. I hope that the deceptive behavior and the destructive duality is no longer easy to conceal… Avoiding a bite by a snake out in the open is far easier than the one hiding in the cupboard.”
Munir’s comment, made during a session with university students, comes amid Islamabad’s growing anger at the Taliban failure to crack down – and its support for – terrorists that have escalated attacks on Pakistan from Afghan soil. Saleh, however, pointed out that the situation is of Islamabad’s own making.
Pakistan has a long history of weaponizing Islam and using a madrasa network for “exploitation, abuse & masking of their destructive strategic intent,” Saleh added, referring to Pakistan’s age-old Strategic Depth strategy which rose to new heights in the 1980s under then-president General Zia-ul-Haq.
Zia instituted state sponsorship of religious extremist teachings and saw the number of madrassas under his rule grow by about 2,000. Many of these shaped future mujahideen who fought in the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan. These are the same types of holy schools that birthed the Taliban. In fact, Pakistan’s secular government was intimately involved with launching the Taliban fighting force in the 1990s. PM Benazir Bhutto was dubbed the “Mother of the Taliban.”
Faisal Devji, in his book Muslim Zion, argued that Pakistan is a nation that defines itself vs. “The Other.” Pakistan’s history is based on “self-abnegation.” Previously it was the “Hindu Other.” And now, strangely, “The Other” is Afghanistan – now run by radical Islamic mullahs. Pakistan internally used Islam as ideological unifier to subjugate the non-Punjabi ethnic identities – especially the Pashtun, Sindhis, and Baloch, among others. And Pakistan hoped to de-ethnicize Afghanistan. And did the Pakistani’s not get what they wanted? Did they not want a theocracy next door, where Islam – a radical version of it – was Afghanistan? This “weapon” has backfired in a bad way.
“The current tragic state of Afghanistan under the cruel, barbaric & inhumane rule of the Taliban is very largely due to Pakistan’s sick strategy,” Saleh explained.
Saleh said he witnessed a similar hatred firsthand from Gen Ashfaq Kayani during talks in Bagram convened by the CIA. Kayani’s temper and outbursts were even worse than Munir’s, Saleh claimed. “Albeit it was a private conversation and not public,” Saleh pointed out.
Munir was probably a high school lad in the middle of Zia’s reign. But the military state of mind and its ideological weapons were passed on from generation to generation. The Pakistan deep state thrived. Munir is cut from that cultural cloth. He is molded by it and whole-heartedly believes Pakistan had to do what was right, which includes employing Islam as a sword and consolidating identity around Pakistani nationalism over ethnicity.
Pakistani Prime Minister Kakar, a Pashtun himself, suggested the same to students in November. He seemed to indicate he was proud of the fact that the troublesome Pashtuns were “sold for a few rupees” in the Treaty of Gandamak. The document, signed by the Afghan King in 1879 to end the Second Anglo-Afghan war, ceded land to the British empire that eventually became a part of Pakistan. Saleh in a post after the remarks said Kakar “has been raised and tailored with more loyalty to Pakistan state structures than to humanity, ethnic kinship, historical ties & bonds.”
Saleh around this time also argued that Pakistan was worried that the Durand Line was becoming “blurry.” That these clear lines of control and domination within Pakistan itself had “lost relevance psychologically.”
“This year in Pakistan, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, there was no flag of Pakistan hoisted by communities during their independence celebrations,” Saleh told CNN-News 18.
Saleh might be onto something. Munir’s belligerent words smacked of desperation. Even paranoia. If Munir believes the true enemy is the Taliban rulers and its terrorist affiliates, his language was dangerous. But, the truth is, the Taliban and terror affiliates are Pakistan’s offspring. The plan all along was to throw all Afghans under the bus and install the puppet radicals.
Munir at one point, supposedly in a regretful tone, ironically said: “Our people do not read history.” Of course, the question is: history according to who? Munir and the establishment certainly don’t want anyone reading the real history of Pakistan’s sordid policies toward Afghanistan.