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During a press conference hosted by the US State Department in Lahore, a participant explained that America was like an insatiable mother-in-law who was never satisfied with the work of her child’s spouse.
While the speaker was alluding to the stereotypical relationship between a Pakistani man’s wife and mother, Mrs. Clinton’s uproarious laughter was based on an opposite archetypal American relationship between a daughter’s husband and her mother.
The question then becomes if the US is a never-satisfied mother-in-law to Pakistan, then who is America’s daughter and Pakistan’s wife? The answer comes in the form of the following parable:
In the days when people were busy rebuilding from the ravages of the Second Great War, the spoils of victory were being divided by the Great Powers. Out of many, two powers emerged: one from the capitalistic West in the name of Lady America, and the other as an eastern Soviet Communist empire. Neither had grown tired of the Great War, because they saw the world for their taking. Both moved with swiftness to convince their neighbors that their ideologies and weapons were better than the “other guys.”
So began the Cold War, and when Lady America needed a weapon to battle her Soviet arch-nemesis, she became Mother America after giving birth to a daughter. This daughter was a strategy deployed by the CIA throughout its history: to depose governments by secretly funding and training guerrilla groups. These guerrillas were used to manipulate poor nations, and challenge the spread of the Soviet Empire from Mother America’s backyard in South America.
The daughter, who took the temporal form of Spanish-speaking guerrilla groups, had an appetite for unleashing violence on innocent civilians and disregarding the democratic will of the people. She did not work alone, military generals and despots from around the continent were willing to work with her in order to brutally repress their own people with inequality and disorder.
All the while, Mother America was profiting from the daughter’s work in the name of money, goods, and slashing away at the Soviet’s influence. When mother dearest wanted cheap fruit, she would instruct the daughter to kill any leaders who attempted land reform or nationalising of their resources. The daughter would deploy guerrillas and assassins to rid Mother of pesky democratically elected leaders who had the gall to serve their own people rather than America.
Though the daughter was effective, Mother America knew she was a trouble child and an unreliable basket-case. Then came the 1970’s: the daughter had come to marrying age and Mother America was very interested in finding the perfect suitor. When the Soviet rascals made their way into Afghanistan, a handsome mustached general appeared in Pakistan. His name was Zia and he was known for his violent intolerance. He was chalk full of self-righteousness, and exercised brutal repression against his people. This made him quite a perfect fit for the guerrilla daughter who had become more distant from humanity and unfeeling over time. The General was a match for Mother America too, since he also had a bitter rivalry with a socialist-leaning western neighbor called India.
So, the marriage date was settled; but the General said before Pakistan could be wed, there had to be a substantial dowry paid to the khaki-wearing stewards of the nation. Money was much needed because the General wanted new toys to threaten his Indian enemies. America offered up a plentiful dowry in the form of gold bars, green bills, and enough military weapons to keep the General entertained for a while.
The General then added another condition to the marriage, saying the betrothed must embrace Islam fully. Mother America’s daughter did so quickly, and began studying a virulent and violent form of Islam called Wahabiism, because it appealed to her chauvinistic sensibility. She even changed her name from Contra to Taliban as it better fit her new personality, while giving her a holy justification for the havoc and disaster she would create for the average citizen.
But Pakistan at the time was not a proper house for the newly-sanctified Wahabi bride, so the General did some house-cleaning to make her feel more comfortable. This came in the form of legislation based on medieval Islamic law, which was used to oppress the nation’s minorities or anyone who critically examined their Islamic faith. This brought forth an era of increasing bigotry amongst the people which was the perfect environment for the Taliban bride.
After the marriage occurred, Mother America stepped back to see if Pakistan could aid the daughter in removing the Soviets from Afghanistan. General Zia did his part by using funds from the CIA to equip and train Taliban insurgents with the help of the ISI. At first, the marriage made Mother America quite happy as the daughter and her new suitor successfully expelled the Soviets from Afghanistan.
However, the daughter soon became addicted to selling opium, and began stoning and exploding the Afghan and Pakistani people. Thereafter, the daughter began to resent her mother for using her as a pawn in the race against the Soviets. This resulted in the Taliban’s turn from anti-Communist rhetoric to anti-American hate in the 1990’s. Eventually, Daughter Taliban made friends with a man named Osama and allowed him to plan attacks against her mother which led to the 9/11 event.
Thereafter, Mother America may have come to a real awareness: that her daughter was no good and was a cancer spreading across the world threatening everyone’s future, especially her own. Since the Soviets were destroyed, America no longer benefited from the intolerance and violence spread by their rebellious daughter. Now Pakistan’s mother-in-law needs the country to divorce itself from its Taliban wife, but Mother America does so while capitulating to the demands of her daughter in the form of negotiating with the Taliban and allowing them to be part of the future government in Afghanistan.
However, what the mother-in-law does not understand is that divorce can be quite a painful drawn-out process. While it may seem obvious to the world at large that one spouse is destroying the other through violence and negativity, nothing can be done until the aggrieved spouse realises this issue themselves.
The love story mentioned above has yet to reach its conclusion, and it is ultimately up to Pakistan whether it changes its history to rid itself of its abusive spouse. If one looks at the Haqqani network’s continued relationship with the Pak-Army, it seems that the dysfunctional marriage between terrorism and the State will continue.
Though the US wants to break the marriage, they are not involved in the complex relationship directly. So while the world can suggest that Pakistan divorce their Taliban bride, this cannot happen until the nation’s leaders critically examines the worth of their relationship to terrorist groups and the intolerant environment established to incubate them.
The writer holds a Juris Doctorate in the US and is a researcher on comparative law and international law issues.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
