German assessment of islam and nonsense theories of pan islamism DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.12771.37927

1. Thursday, November 10, 2016
Saturday, August 30, 2014 German Assessment of Islam and
nonsense Theories of Pan Islamism
German Assessment of Islam and nonsense Theories of Pan Islamism
 November 2016
 DOI:
 10.13140/RG.2.2.12771.37927
 Project:
 MILITARY HISTORY
 Agha H Amin

2. Saturday, August 30, 2014
German Assessment of Islam and nonsense Theories of Pan
Islamism
US SOVIET RIVALRY IN COLD WAR AND CAPACITY
BUILDING OF MUSLIM EXTREMISM

3. Below is an article received from my dear friend Colonel
David Osinski in USA.
Below that is an analysis of mine of 2000, which means
pre 9/11.
US meddling with Islamists in Soviet Afghan War created
many chemical changes in Islamic worlds chemistry.
A false feeling of euphoria and misconceptions about
Islamic invincibility developed !
False conclusions were drawn from Soviet Afghan War
and the present mess.
Western states are apologetic , Muslim population is
multiplying in Europe and Muslim immigrants largely
people from lowest social backgrounds , labour class are
rabid Islamists. They get the best western social systems
privileges and also despise Western civilisation.
Brain washed by Muslim Mullahs of Americas and
Europe.In Pakistan and Afghanistan , mullah was lowest
character in social set up who lived on charity of a
village.This despicable character was elevated to
societys highest level thanks to US/UK/Saudi money in
Afghan War .
Like Jewish youth in Russia and Germany adopted
Marxism as a form of rebellion against conservative anti
semitic regimes , in asia it became fashionable to make

4. good money growing a beard and making good money
killing Shias with saudi donations and UAE donations and
in being called a Taliban.
But Marxism was an egalitarian forward looking idea
with all its faults.Islamic extremism is all darkness and
retrogression and ironically US mis -use of Islamists did
their capacity buildings.
Americans are very stupid in teaching their enemies
tricks of trade craft ! Even Ho Chi Minh was taught how
to walk by US special operators like Prunier of OSS !
This is a dark collection of people 500 years behind
christianity ! And a Roman said beware of freeing a
people who have never known freedom !
And you go in Iraq to free people.Russians and USSR
did better taming fiercest tribes of Central Asia and
Caucasus , to such an extent that half of them eat
pork ,drink vodka and the women are tigresses in bed !
Particularly in Pakistans FATA most notorious criminals
became Taliban .It payed ! Zarqawi is worst example in
Iraq and Jordan !
And Americans were so damn stupid that they destroyed
secular regimes like Saddam , Afghan leftists , Libya ,
secular muslims who knew how to screw the mullahs !
Even now US has not learnt the lesson and supported

5. these mad dogs in libya and syria ! the result is ISIS.
This is fire and water and they cant mix . However much
US supports radical islam they will finally come for your
throat.Its simple , either at your feet or at your throat !
Putin understands it and Chechnya is a success today.
Afghanistan and Iraq are US failures.
A wolf cannot be domesticated , a mad dog can only be
shot.
A short quote from my book which sums this american
exercise in madness :-----
USA, ISI, AL QAEDA and TALIBAN Anatomy of Grand US Strategic Failure by Agha
Humayun Amin (Nov 14, 2012)
Formats Price New Used
PaperbackGet it by Wednesday, Sep 3
FREE Shipping on orders over $35 $25.00 $22.50 $19.80 $24.19
.The Mullah who was at the lowest rung of the society was elevated and the traditional
leaders of Pashtun society eliminated and destroyed. Basically the Pakistani leadership like
the usurper Zia comprised of men with humble origins preferred pliable Afghans with
humble origins who would obey the third rate ISI major again from lower middle class
humble origins.

6. Afghan resistance in Pakistan was thus led by Panjsheri puncturemen previously repairing
tyres in Kabul , obscure and humble Mullahs like Haqqani and failed engineering university
dropouts with no tribal standing like Hekmatyar. It suited the Pakistanis and their American
fathers to deal with non entities who could be moulded and manipulated.
The Americans were funding people like Zia who was selling eggs to survive with 250 and
400 milion dollars annually. It is a white lie to think that the Americans stepped in after the
December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.US and British assistance to the bastard
child Zia military regime started in 1978 and early 1979. The Pakistanis and Americans
brought all types of mad dog Islamists to Pakistan for the so called Afghan Jihad.Now
people like Bruce Riedel are blaming and attacking the same characters patronized by the
US in 1980s as Al Qaeda and Islamic extremists. Islamist volunteers were brought by the
ISI,CIA and Saudi GID to Pakistan because the Afghan mercenaries enlisted by the ISI were
not fighting as ruthlessly as their ISI handlers wanted them to fight. It is ironic that Islamic
Jihad was transformed into a global cause under CIA stewardship. Characters like Hafiz
Seed , today topping the US hate list were groomed and gained prominence during the CIA-
ISIGID Afghan war. HAMAS was established in 1987 with Abdullah Azzam as one of its
ideals.
After 1989 Jihad in Afghanistan degraded into a Pakistani version of Jihad. The Jihads
American fathers had abandoned Jihad in 1989 after the Soviet withdrawal. The Iraq war of
1991 was a watershed event. From 1991 Afghan war assumed a more Pakistani and Saudi
shape. Mujahideen were increasingly patronized and were replaced with Taliban who were
more rabidly Islamist Pakistani Saudi proxies.Again from the lowest and humblest sections
of AfghanPashtun society.Men who would readily obey their ISI handlers without any
dissent. Pakistans civilian prime minister Nawaz Sharif was an ISI creation and a man with
limited vision.
The other civilian prime minister Benazir Bhutto was a subject of ISI blackmail thanks to
some scandalous material gathered by the ISI cheap operatives in the Zia era. Benazir
Bhuttos handpicked Interior Minister Naseerullah Babar was spiritual Godfather of the mad
dog Islamist Talibans in Afghanistan.
Benazir Bhutto had no control on Pakistans intelligence in both her tenures and the ISI
did as it pleased in Afghanistan and India.A sad reflection on a supposed secular and
educated prime minister who claimed that she was the best guarantee against Islamic
extremism in the region. Hafiz Saeed now much hated by the CIA grew in stature in
Benazirs two tenures as prime minister ! It is hilarious when one reads about Benazirs
claims as the wests best bet against Islamic extremism in her last book !

7. When the Americans ditched the ISI after 1989 , the ISI found a new patron in the
Kashmir Jihad in shape of China. The Chinese feared that an independent Kashmir would be
a US base against China and had decided in late 1980s to support Kashmiri separatists who
wanted accession with Pakistan.
The period 1988-2000 was the golden period of ISIs Kashmir War. Ex DG ISI LTG Ziauddin
narrated to this scribe that Pakistan Army regulars and ISI regulars were fully involved in
the Kashmir Jihad and participated in deep penetration raids in Indian Occupied Kashmir.
Meanwhile the 8 years of Bill Clinton in the USA from 1992 to 2000 were a total foreign
policy disaster and during these 8 years the US had literally no Afghan policy. Monica
Lewinsky no doubt was a high priority for Bill Clinton. While Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda
trained and regrouped in Afghanistan the Americans were just sleeping .But now their
analysts like Riedel brand Pakistan as worlds most dangerous country. It is an ISI and CIA
achievement that characters like Mulla Omar became Afghanistans key leaders.Humble men
with no political status were elevated to Afghanistans power brokers just because they were
good sons of some ISI major commanding an ISI detachment ! This is history ! Charisma
and power comes when a man sells his soul and works for some one.No tribute to Mulla
Omars personality.The very word Mulla signifies a mans lowest social status in Pashtun
society. A large part of what analysts like Riedel now define as Islamic terrorism was
created by the CIA in its notorious partnership with ISI and CIA in 1980-90. While the US
abandoned Afghanistan and Pakistan in the period 1990-2001 , the Pakistani ISI saw
Afghanistan as a giant training camp to train ISI proxies for the war in Indian occupied
Kashmir.Thus the rise of the Taliban from 1994 to 2001. American policy makers were
simply sleeping during this period and today the Americans are simply paying the price for
their naive complacency.
A.H Amin

9. My association and friendship with Colonel David Osinki
dates from early 2005 when he was General Manager
Contracts in Louis Burger at Kabul and I was working
with a sub contractor company of Louis Burger. Colonel
Osinski is a keen observer of international events and we
were co authors in a book on Afghanistan published by
Edwin Mellen Press,New York in February 2010.
Studying sociology many years ago, it was interesting to
see how an apparently small minority can change society
in ways not seemingly possible. Then, as pointed out in
this mail and elsewhere, most people have to work to

10. support their families and don't have the luxury of using
time for other pursuits. Others just don't care. Others find
reality an unpleasant subject to dwell on.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
EVERYTHING IS NOT BLACK AND WHITE OR RED OR
BLUE;
THERE ARE SHADES IN BETWEEN TOO ! PAN ISLAMISM
CHECHEN QUESTION ETC.Sir ,
I have seen a large number of articles about Pan Islamic themes in
various issues of DJ . I was however propelled to write this letter
once I saw a letter by a reader chiding Iran with lethargy and
indifference about Chechen Muslims ! I share the writers concern
about the plight of Chechens but feel with considerable conviction
that ignorance of history and extreme fervour has induced the writer
to make some sweeping statements. This is no fault of the author but
a common occurrence in Pakistan where a lot of lip service is paid to
abstract concepts of Pan Islamism etc; while many ground realities
are ignored. In addition history is not taught in a manner in schools
or colleges which may enable a future adult to have a broader
perspective of events. The fault lies in our educational system! Take
Ahmad Shah Abdali for example. The man was a soldier of fortune
who looted the Muslims of Delhi and Punjab indiscriminately but
later was extolled by Iqbal as a great Muslim hero . Read Waris
Shah and other Punjabi Muslim poets of 18th century Punjab and
you find out that this Abdali was the worst kind of looter ! Take
Aurangzeb again eulogised by Iqbal as a Muslim hero .The fact is

11. that the man alienated all communities in India. He chastised the
Pathans alienating them by punitive expeditions against tribes,
making the Yusufzai fight the Khattak as a result of which Pathans
stopped joining the Mughal Army at a time when the Mughals
needed them the most in the Maratha insurgency (Refers pages-239
& 240-Cambridge History of India-Volume Four).
The same Aurangzeb was more keen to destroy the southern Muslim
Shia kingdoms as a result of which the Mughals subsequently got
involved in the Maratha war which became the Mughals Spanish
Ulcer and the principal reason of decline and fall of the Mughal
Empire! By removing the Shia Kingdoms Aurangzeb got
inextricably involved with the Marathas who inhabited the area of
the Shia Kingdoms . These Marathas found Aurangzeb's Sunni
fanaticism intolerable and waged a brilliant guerrilla war under
Sivaji which laid a blue print of a guerrilla war imitated or re
practised much later in Spain against Napoleon , in Vietnam against
USA and much later in Afghanistan .In all cases guerrilla forces
triumphed over conventional forces; whether guerrillas were
Marataha Hindu , Catholic Spanish , Communist Atheist
Vietnamese or Muslim Pathan or Tajik .Today these Pan Islamists
think that it was triumph of Islam over Communism ! A typical case
of Pan Islamic confusion! To come back to the point the problem
with Pan Islamism is that many realities of history are ignored once
Pan Islamists talk about Islam at an international level.
Geography, ethnicity and historical background are ignored by Pan
Islamists . Take Iran's case as an example . Iran is a Shia Muslim
national state. It has defied USA successfully since 1979 more
successfully than any other modern Muslim state without selling
national honour as done by Pakistani governments since 1950 or by
blundering into a trap like Kuwait War in case of Iraq! It is
prosperous cohesive and has clear national goals. Now take Iran in

12. relation to its neighbours. On one side is Turkey . An Islamic state if
this confused label can be applied to a state which has a defence pact
with Israel . Turkey has historically tried to dismember or damage
Iran and the same is true for Iran's attitude with Turkey ! In 1724
Turkey concluded an agreement with Tsarist Christian Russia to
dismember and divide Muslim Iran ! (Refers-page-237 to page-238-
History of Persia-Volume Two-Brigadier General Percy Sykes-
London-Macmillan and Company Limited-Saint Martin's Press-New
York-1958) . Turkish Iranian rivalry which was a natural result of
the fact that the two states were different ethnically and dynastically
weakened both and played a major role in ensuring that Ottoman
Turkey's forces were divided between Europe and Asia. Iran also
remained weak since it was engaged in a series of wars with Turkey
from the sixteenth to the 19th century . Pan Islamists may cite this as
a case of Islamic disunity but that is absurd ! The same was true for
Christian France allying with Muslim Turkey against Christian
Austria or France allying with Muslim ruled Mysore against English
East India Company. Religion, alas despite all lip service to the idea
remains a weak basis for statehood barring Pakistan and Israel with
European Jews dominating Israel and Punjabi Muslims dominating
Pakistan after having finally sucessfully getting rid of the Muslim
majority province of East Bengal ! Even the first Muslim state
which in reality was an Arab dominated state was basically a family
affair; the first four caliphs being from Quraish and later the the
Bannu Ummaya fighting the Ali-ides or the Banni Abbas fighting
the Banni Ummaya. If the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) wanted he would
have left clear guidelines ; about his successor; another legal issue
which divides Muslims! History of Islam was in reality the history
of Arab Muslims with all power concentrated in the hands of one
clan ; a total negation of the concept of democracy as practised by
the Holy Prophet ! The Arab dynasties were followed by Turkish

13. Berber Fatimid dynasties all conveniently employing religion as a
tool ; an opium to drug the masses ! The Ottoman Empire was a
tyranny as far as the Arab Muslims was concerned;Muslim in name
Turk in reality !The Mughals were Muslims in name following the
policy of divide and rule using Hindu Generals against Pathan
Muslims or Hindu Rajput generals against Maratha Hindus ! This
was not a negation of Pan Islamism . Islam was good as a slogan but
the Mughals had to deal with a larger number of non Muslims. The
Pakistan idea emerged only after the Muslims feared persecution
from a Hindu majority. But even religion failed once the Bengali
Muslims felt that they were being fooled in the name of Islam by the
West Pakistani ruling elite ! The Punjabi Muslim politicians raised
the slogan of parity to safeguard West Pakistani/Punjabi Muslim
interests against possible Bengali Muslim domination ! Exactly in
the same manner as done by the Muslim League to escape Hindu
majority's domination ! Now we have PONAM BNM ANP MQM
STTP etc. The reason is not that these are traitors but because
ethnicity is also important . Mere religion is no panacea of all evils !
If it was not so there would be no quota system!
Pan Islamism was picked up by Jamal Afghani in second half of
19th century . It's a good slogan but overlooks certain concrete
historical facts . How could for example Indian Muslims support
Egyptian Muslims once Alexandria was bombarded in 1882 or once
the British fought the Second Afghan War in 1878-80 . The
Egyptians had no link with India apart from a common religion !
The Afghans had systematically looted Indian Muslims
independently or as mercenaries of Persia from 1739 to 1799 !
Ahmad Shah Abdali warned the Muslim Pathans of Rohailkhand
and Upper Doab to be more careful with Shia Oudh than against
Marathas ! About 13 years later Shia Muslim Oudh hired a British
East India Company brigade to destroy Pathan Muslim Rohailkhand

14. ! Sir Syed Ahmad Khan rightly advised the Indian Muslims not to
think the Turkish Khalifa as Khalifa of India ! The Arabs knew
much better about the Turk's Islamic fervour ! The British were the
de facto rulers of India ! The fact was forgotten by the Indian
Muslims much later and the Khilafat movement however heroic
damaged the cause of Indian Muslims. The Turks under Kemal the
'Grey Wolf' of Anatolia proved wiser and kicked out the ridiculous
Khalifa !
Now to come back to Iran :- (1) How could Iran sell out to the
Russians in 1979 when it was itself in the middle of a traumatic
revolution and confronting USA which the Pakistani leadership
since 1951 has shamelessly wooed, only be kicked once Pakistan
needed crucial US help in 1965 and 1971! Zia on the other hand sold
Pakistan to the US once the Russians occupied Afghanistan in order
to preserve his seat! The military regime was isolated internally as
well as externally! Internally, it had reneged on a promise of
elections within 90 days, and externally, it had no support! Russian
intervention in Afghanistan gave it a golden excuse to stay in power
and to get US aid! The Afghans were helped not because of Islam
but because they were a good means to get dollars from the US and
Saudi Arabia! So much for the Islamic fervour! Pakistan got billions
of dollars of US aid most of which was pilfered by Zia and his
generals and air marshals! The evidence of this can be seen in the
assets of many Jullundhri Pathans or Hindustani generals as held
today or those of their sons who are not corrupt politicians by any
definition since they are general's sons! (2) What happened in
Afghanistan? The US financed a large number of groups, Pathan,
Uzbek, Tajik, Hazara, Persian speaking to fight a proxy war. All
these groups were Muslim in name but in reality Pathan, Tajik or
Uzbek. The Afghan war was a much smaller affair than Vietnam.
While about 60,000 Americans died in Vietnam only 14000

15. Russians died in Afghanistan, an average of 1200 per year. A very
insignificant figure in Russian military history keeping in view the
fact that about 1,700,000 (Refers-pages-986 and 987 -Hitler and
Stalin- Alan Bullock-Alfred. A.Knopf-New York-1992) Russians
died in WW One and 13 ,600,000 in WW Two!
Compare Afghanistan with Vietnam in terms of ethnicity versus
religion. I think that the best thing about the Russian invasion of
Afghanistan was the fact that the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras who
had been third rate citizens in a Pathan dominated Afghanistan since
1799 became first rate citizens ! A fact which even today is very
irritating and unpleasant for the Taliban which is a deadly anti Shia
and essentially Pathan Sunni Group! The Vietnamese were one race
and had one ideology. Vietnam is stable and prosperous today
without being Muslim or Christian! The Afghans are disunited and
in much worse shape in 2000 than in 1988 when the last Russian
soldier left its soil ! What is Hekmatyar without US or ISI aid !
Where is his Islamic fervour now ! More was at stake than Islam!
CIA dollars in millions were stashed by CIA and ISI operatives or
generals and air marshals in Chase Manhattan or Bank of Cheats and
Crooks (BCCI)! The only genuine man was Ahmad Shah Masud
who did not become a tool of foreign intelligence agencies and is
still fighting not based in a Madarssa financed by an Arab anti Shia
state or intelligence agency of a foreign country but by virtue of
being a man of substance ! Who are the Taliban ! How have they
suddenly replaced so-called charismatic Mujahideen commanders
like Hekmatyar, Khaliq Abdul Haq etc ! The change proves that
Afghanistan was a manipulated affair ! The controls were elsewhere
! The problem is that one country cannot manipulate another
endlessly! As the conditions in Afghanistan stabilise, it will be more
and more difficult for external powers to manipulate the country!
Either there will be a sellout in 2000 or Pakistan will suffer the

16. ravages of a low intensity limited or full war in case adventurism in
intelligence agencies is not curbed ! The Afghan Jehad a misnomer
was in reality a CIA Jehad and that is why the Afghans are in the
shape they are today ! Their leaders in league with Pakistan's
military junta gobbled millions of US dollars and now they talk of
confrontation with US ! My knowledge of Pathan history tells me
that there will be a sellout in 2000 ! So much for the Taliban and the
Osama business ! (3) Few people know that in 1982 at the height of
Iran Iraq war General Zia despatched a military advisory group to
Iraq ! These people were not there to teach the Iraqi's harmless first
aid tactics but were dealing with Iraqi armour and infantry officers
fighting a war with another Islamic country! So much for Pakistan's
solidarity with Iran! (3) Now coming to Iran's dealings with Russia.
Iran at the moment is moving towards close cooperation with
Russia. Russia is transferring nuclear technology and also supplying
military hardware to Iran. This is most essential for Iran since
today's world with a unipolar scenario is far more insecure for
smaller states. Muslim, Christian or Atheist than before 1989 ! Why
should Iran antagonise the Russians! This is not a sellout. The
Iranians are pursuing their national interests, just like Pakistan's
usurpers were following their personal interests once they sold
Pakistan albeit cheaply and without achieving much to the USA in
1950s or in 1977-88 ! Now coming straight to Chechnya . I have
visited Russia twice in 1995 and 1996. Till 1996 the Chechens were
doming well in Russia ! They were prominent in Moscow,
dominating the Mafia at least marginally and the General Manager
of Hotel Raddisson where I was staying was a Chechen! I discussed
Chechnya in great detail with this gentleman and many Chechens!
The issue is more complicated than we in Pakistan know. The
Chechens were happy with the semi independent political status they
had achieved in 1996. Only the radical Islamists who were a

17. marginal although well organised group were unhappy. They wanted
to export their brand of Islamic radicalism to Daghestan a more
liberal and peaceful Muslim state! The present trouble into which
Chechnya got into is the result of the absurd and nut headed
approach of these Chechen Muslim radicals. Sending guerrillas to
Daghestan. Planting bombs in civilian flats in Moscow! These were
the acts that provoked the Russian government to attack Chechnya !
The Russians were unhappy when their government attacked
Chechnya in 1995 or in 1979-88 when they attacked Afghanistan.
They regarded these wars as adventurism. Now the situation is
different. Now the average Russian regards the present war as a just
war! Russian public opinion is solidly behind Russian government.
It is not the question of Islam versus Christianity as is being made
out in Pakistan! The Russians are a people with a barbarian past !
They were ruled by Tartar Muslims, oppressive Romanovs and the
totalitarian Bolsheviks. More Russians have died fighting each other
than Muslims against Russians. In the Russian Civil War fought in
1917-22 almost ten million people died! A number much larger than
the total population of Chechnya ! Chechnya houses some of
Russia's largest oil and gas reserves ! It is not Afghanistan which
was many hundred miles away from mainland Russia. Its possession
is vital to Russia . The Russians can easily conduct military
operations unlike Afghanistan where logistic cost of supplying or
sustaining military operations was the principal cause of Russian
withdrawal! Its just like Balochistan which the Pakistani
government would not allow to secede; not because for any special
love for the Baloch Muslims; but simply because the province
houses Pakistan's largest gas reserves and is geopolitically essential
for Pakistan's security! East Pakistan was lost because of geography
but Balochistan's geography condemns it to be a province of a larger
federal state !

18. The Afghanistan analogy is not applicable to Chechnya. The
Russians withdrew from Afghanistan not because they were
militarily defeated but because Gorbachev rightly assessed that
staying on was not cost effective (Pages-207 & 208- Out of
Afghanistan-Cordovez and Harrison-Oxford-1995). Chechnya is an
altogether different case because Russian presence there is cost
effective because of Chechen oil! The political situation in Russia is
once again stabilising. The Communists are once again regaining
strength while Putin is likely to emerge as a strong statesman. No
amount of statements from the OIC can change the situation. If the
Russians are ignoring the OSCE and USA why should they bother
about OIC! Why should Iran surrounded by three hostile or
potentially hostile neighbours and one super power which every year
allocates funds to destabilise Iran antagonise the Russians ; their
only trustworthy ally!
Where is Islam in case of Kurds! How many Kurds have died
fighting Iranian Iraqi and Turkish armies since the last one hundred
years! I think ten times more than total number of Chechens killed
from January 1999! Where is the Islam of the Islamic Contact Group
in case of Kurds who are condemned for eternity to be subjects of
Iran, Iraq and Turkey. The first modern Chemical Warfare attack
was carried out against the Iraqi Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war!
Where was Islam when genocide was committed in 1971 by a
Muslim (a misconceived misnomer!) Army against the Bengali
Muslims! Religion, ideology etc is nothing but cheap tools
employed by the ruling elite to galvanise and drug the masses! The
middle class and the feudal clique of UP and Punjab became
interested in Muslim separatism only once their class interests were
threatened with competitive examinations and concepts of British
democracy! The same was true for the Hindu middle and business
classes that joined the congress! They thought that they would

19. succeed the British Viceroys in ruling entire India! Hinduism was
only a slogan, just as was the case with the Muslim elite! Religion is
a good slogan but only a slogan! Democracy ends immediately
when Muslims leave the Mosque! Lip service is paid but that is
where Islam ends!
It will be good for our intellectual health if we forget about Pan
Islamism and try to set our own house in order! So far we have
miserably failed even to stay as one nation in case of East Pakistan!
Today we have the smaller ethnic group's issue which is intricate as
well as genuine and demands good statesmanship which is sadly
lacking both in India and Pakistan ! Both have been termed as 'failed
states' by political scientists ! Both have a history of using coercive
power of a modern state against smaller ethnic groups e.g. Kashmir
1989-2000, East Pakistan-1971 , Balochistan 1958-64, Balochistan
1974-77 etc etc. Both the states have been steadily involved in an
arms race that will end only once a war limited or total is finally
fought . A dispassionate study of history proves that men are but
victims of currents of history and cannot change the tide of history!
Europe learned its lesson after two world wars and is saner ! China
learned its lesson from 1911-1949 and is now saner ! Unfortunately
Pakistan and India have fought small wars ; petty skirmishes by
western standards in which total casualties of each side was less than
10,000 killed. That is why both have hawks; theoretical hawks I
would say; arm chair strategists; Don Quixote's who think that
Kashmir can we won (Pakistan) or retained (India)! The motivation
of the ruling elite on both sides is ulterior! Its not ideology Islam or
secularism but ego, powers, lusts for glory! Bismarck's does not lead
them or Churchill's but myopic men with limited vision, short-term
goals and personal agendas advised by dark horse adventist
intelligence agencies! Sundarji called them blind men of Hindustan ;
a better name may be 'Blind men of Hind-o-Pak'! These are

20. shortsighted men who have not understood what General Sherman
said at Atlanta after the US Civil War i.e. 'there are many a boys
here who think of war as glory, but it is hell!' As a soldier I wish that
both the countries should either fight it out so that we at least
discover (I would say rediscover or confirm as far as ex soldiers are
concerned!) The qualitative efficiency of our general officers or
arrive at a settlement! Otherwise it's a never-ending game of musical
chairs, which the ruling elite of both the countries is making the
common man play! The qualities of generalship and mediocrity in
higher ranks on both sides have been well proved in 1947-48, 1965
and 1971! 2000 if it proves decisive will inshaallah prove as no
exception.
And lastly Pan Islamism is dangerous . It is better if we concentrate
on setting our own house in order.
Major A.H Amin
(Retired)
1021 Arlington Blvd
Arlington va-22209
USA
Pavocavalry@hotmail.com