http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013\02\10\story_10-2-2013_pg3_4
Sunday, February 10, 2013
COMMENT : The changing nature of sub-conventional warfare adversaries — Jamal
Hussain
One of the principal objectives of al Qaeda and its associated groups is to
introduce the very strict Salafi form of Islam in all Muslim states
Waging of sub-conventional warfare is the option of the weaker side as it
attempts to overcome the substantial conventional force superiority of its
opponent by resorting to irregular/asymmetric or fourth generation warfare
techniques. In the first six decades of the 20th century, sub-conventional wars
were generally waged by societies that had been colonised by the industrialised
and powerful European nations. They called themselves ‘freedom fighters’ and
their struggles ‘wars of independence’ while their colonial masters termed them
as rebels and their movements as rebellions or mutinies. WWII, which was
essentially an internecine war between the European colonial powers, is
considered a watershed of colonial rule and when the debilitating conflict
ended six years later, both the victors and the vanquished had been
considerably weakened and they had neither the power nor resources to reverse
the tide of independence movements in their respective colonies.
>From the rubble of WWII, the USA and USSR emerged as rival superpowers and
>neither of them was guilty of having vast colonial empires. After WWII, both
>the superpowers encouraged the freedom struggle of the colonised societies and
>within the next two decades, colonial rule came to an end as new countries
>emerged as sovereign states. The colonisation of societies was tantamount to
>the practice of slavery at the national level and its end was a major
>achievement in the history of human civilisation, but the manner the sordid
>occupation was ended and new countries created sowed the seeds for future
>sub-conventional warfare.
Almost the whole of Africa and much of Asia was under the colonial powers and
when they were finally evicted, the new nations that they created were neither
on the basis of ethnic, linguistic or cultural contiguity nor on natural
boundaries but purely on who ruled over which part of the territory. This
arbitrary partition has resulted in small minority groups within the new nation
states who feel themselves isolated and believe they are being commercially and
socially exploited by the majority. Many have taken up arms against their
states. The current low intensity conflicts in Indian Assam and Kashmir, the
freedom struggle of the Kurds in the Middle East, the atrocities in a number of
African states based on ethnic and tribal rivalries, and countless other big
and minor armed struggles in a variety of newly independent nation states can
be traced to the unnatural boundaries and the arbitrary nature of their
creation.
Sub-conventional warfare based on religious grounds is a relatively new
phenomenon and its beginning can be traced to the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan in 1979. While the Afghan freedom struggle against the Soviet
invaders was essentially based on Afghan ethnicity, the USA, Pakistan and Saudi
Arabia promoted it as a religious movement (Islamic jihad) against the
infidels. While this strategy roped in Muslim volunteer fighters from all
corners of the Muslim world, it also led to the creation and rise of al Qaeda
under Osama bin Laden, whose edifice was purely religion-based. Once the
Soviets were expelled from Afghanistan by the Afghan jihadists with substantial
financial, arms and logistics support of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the US, al
Qaeda turned its attention to the US, especially when the latter sent its
forces into the ‘Holy Land’ (Saudi Arabia) in a bid to expel Saddam Hussein’s
Iraqi forces from neighbouring Kuwait. Al Qaeda since then has raised the
religious banner to fight the ‘enemies of Islam’ — the infidel US and its
European cohorts. Attacks on US interests began in earnest in the 1990s and
culminated in the 9/11 episode that has led to the US war on terror, which many
in the Muslim world view as a war on Islam.
The US invasion of Afghanistan codenamed Operation Enduring Freedom may have
toppled the Taliban regime and destroyed the al Qaeda infrastructure in
Afghanistan, but the two simply migrated and shifted their operations to
neighbouring countries. It has led to the resurgence of the Taliban who have
fought the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan to a standstill and are poised to
force them to end or substantially reduce their combat footprint in their
country by 2014. An offshoot of the Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
(TTP), meanwhile, has declared war on the state of Pakistan, and it is involved
in extensive subversive and terror activities in the country. Other extremist
religious terror organisations in Pakistan like the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and
Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) along with some criminal syndicates have joined hands
with the TTP.
The isolation and eventual elimination of Osama bin Laden did not result in the
elimination of al Qaeda as it split into a number of affiliated but independent
groups all operating under the al Qaeda philosophy. One of the principal
objectives of al Qaeda and its associated groups is to introduce the very
strict Salafi form of Islam in all Muslim states where the majority belong to
and practise the more tolerant versions. While al Qaeda has an international
agenda about the establishment of an Islamic emirate according to their
understanding of Islam, the TTP has a local one: turn Pakistan or at least some
of its parts into a Salafi model Islamic emirate. The sub-conventional war
currently being waged against Pakistan by the al Qaeda/TTP combine is a
manifestation of the religious divide within the ambit of Islam.
The writer is a defence analyst and Director of Centre of Airpower Studies and
can be reached at [email protected]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
