An Open Letter To Senator Edward Kennedy & Other Congressional Leaders

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AN OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY & OTHER CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS
By B.Raman
South Asia Analysis Group

Long Read!

Dear Senator Edward Kennedy,

I am addressing this open letter not only to you, but also to other members of the US Congress, who have expressed their concern over the course of the US-led war against international terrorism in Iraq and have started suggesting, if not demanding, the withdrawal of the US troops from there.

2. I watched with concern your grilling of Mr.Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, in a Senate Committee hearing on the war in Iraq. I can't help feeling that your questioning indicated a disturbing lack of understanding of the threats faced by the democratic world from the new kind of jihadi terrorism, which is radiating across the world from its main hubs in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and now even the Muslim diaspora in West Europe.

3. Sorry for using strong language. Sometimes, one has to.The jihadi terrorists are like locusts. If you don't neutralise them at their spawning grounds before they take off and start flying in different directions, you will have very little defence against them once they are air-borne.

4. That is what the US-led coalition is trying to do in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have been one of the strongest critics of the policies of the Bush Administration in Iraq. At the same time, I have never fought shy of saying, wherever and however I could, that one should resist the urge to rejoice at the predicament of the US forces in Iraq.

5. It has been my consistent view that if the US fails to prevail against the jihadi terrorists in Iraq, the swarm of jihadi locusts taking off from there would start bleeding the rest of the world. It is in the interest of the entire civilised world, including the Islamic world, that these locusts are destroyed in their breeding grounds wherever they are located. Otherwise, no government and no civil society in the world will be safe. This would be true equally of the Muslim world.

6. One might say that I am re-cycling the old domino theory of the Vietnam war days. I am not re-cycling it because I never believed in it when the Vietnam war was on. The Vietcong were no medievals like the pro-bin Laden terrorists of today are. They had no agenda outside the Indo-China region. They posed no threats to American lives and interests outside the Indo-China region. They posed no threats to American lives in their homeland. They were not serial killers like the Al Qaeda and the pro-Al Qaeda terrorists of today. The domino theory as sought to be used against them was an unwise American psychological warfare (PSYWAR) exercise, which misfired.

7. But, the domino theory has some validity against the jihadi terrorists of today. Their agenda is global---not just Afghanistan or Iraq related. Their networking is global----not just restricted to Afghanistan or Iraq. Their targets are global---not just restricted to the US and Israel. Their targets are not just innocent human beings--- they are also targeting ideas which they consider detrimental to their cause such as the ideas of a liberal democracy.

8. One can understand the creeping exasperation in the US over the inability of the US forces to start prevailing in Iraq so far. But prevail, they should. How to help them and make them prevail? That is the question, which all right-thinking persons in the US and outside should be discussing.

9. Once one creates an insurgency or terroism-ridden situation due to one's wrong policies, one takes years to control or finally defeat the insurgents and terrorists. India took 19 years to prevail over the insurgency in Nagaland and Mizoram.It took 14 years to bring terrorism in Punjab under control. It has been fighting jihadi terrorism in J&K for 16 years, but the end is not yet in sight. We have been fighting Marxist/Maoist terrorism for decades.

10. We have taken it all in our stride. We have not allowed the terrorists to overwhelm us---either physically ot morally. We have not allowed them to stop our steady movement towards taking our due place as a major power of the world.

11. How many thousands of innocent civilians and security forces the terrorists have killed! They did not spare even the relatives of the security forces. Remember how the so-called Khalistani terrorists blew up the only son of Govindh Ram, a senior police officer of Punjab, in the late 1980s when the child was returning home from school? They then blew up the father himself, when he refused to be demoralised by the death of his child and give up his fight against terrorism. How many special police officers and their relatives they mowed down in one night in August 1992, after the police had killed Sukhdev Singh Babbar, a dreaded terrorist leader!

12. The Indian political leadership, parliamentarians, policy-makers and security forces took up each brutal act by the terrorists as one more challenge and re-dedicated themselves to the campaign against terrorism. They refused to be intimidated by the terrorists. They refused to let any feelings of defeatism cloud their thinking and actions. Ultimately, it is they and not the terrorists who prevailed.

13. I am confident the US can similarly prevail over the terrorist locusts. All it needs is an intelligent counter-terrorism policy---which makes more use of brain-power than firepower, which shows more grit than the terrorists, which has the unwavering backing of a patient and understanding American leadership and public.

14. The Bush Administration has committed and continues to commit many serious mistakes in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. By all means highlight and criticise those mistakes, but do refrain from saying or doing anything, which could undermine its conduct of what it sees as its war against terrorism.

15. By all means educate the American public on the mistakes in policy-making, but do refrain from doing or saying anything which might confuse it and sow the seeds of defeatism.

16. We have a saying in Sanskrit, our ancient language---vinase kale vipareedh buddhi. Loss of lucidity in thinking is the beginning of defeat. The US security forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and the American public are passing through testing times. Their greatest asset in weathering the difficulties is their lucidity in thinking and determination in action. You owe it to the American people and the international community to see that this asset is not damaged.

17. Please do find the time to read the attached two articles on Iraq which I had written in 2003.

With warm personal regards,

Yours sincerely,.

B.Raman

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Distinguished Fellow and Convenor, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Chennai Chapter. E-mail: itschen36@gmail.com )

ANNEXURE–

South Asia Analysis Group: Paper no. 828 03. 11. 2003 IRAQ: Can US Turn the Jihadi Tide? by B. Raman.

I have been writing about the coming jihad of daily cuts against the USA in Iraq since February 2003 much before the US-UK invasion of that country.

2. My subsequent warnings that the anti-US jihad in Iraq was being commanded and controlled from the madrasas of Pakistan and that it was being funded by the Pakistani members of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF) were not taken seriously till October 14, 2003, when an order of the US Treasury Department freezing the accounts of the Al Akhtar Trust of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) of Pakistan accused it of funding the jihad in Iraq. That is, money killing the Americans and others in Iraq was going from the streets, mosques and madrasas of Pakistan.

3. Let me recall what I have been writing on the basis of reports from sources in the Pakistani madrasas before we analyse the present and look into the future. This is what my first wake-up call of February 17, 2003, (SAAG Paper No. 606 at www.saag.org) had said under the title "MAKING IRAQ THE USA'S CHECHNYA": That was the theme of the sermons in many jihadi madrasas of Pakistan last Friday.

4." It is reported that taking advantage of the large-scale movement of Muslims to Saudi Arabia for the Haj pilgrimage, at least about 80 to 120 jihad-hardened cadres of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF) have moved over to that country under the garb of pilgrims. They intend infiltrating from there into Iraq.

5. "Most of them are stated to be Pakistanis, including Yemeni-Balochis (born of mixed Yemeni and Balochi parentage) belonging to the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Al-Alami (HUM International), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-Al-Islami (HUJI) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM). Some of them had fought against the Soviet troops in Chechnya.

6." It is said that their mission would be not to fight against the US and British troops when they invade Iraq, but to motivate the Iraqi people and organise them into an Iraqi Mujahideen movement against the foreign invaders similar to the Afghan Mujahideen movement against the Soviet troops in the 1980s.

7. "There is so far no evidence to believe that the Saddam Hussein Government in Baghdad has had anything to do with this movement of the IIF cadres to Iraq via Saudi Arabia.

8. "The dregs of the IIF and Al Qaeda taking shelter in Pakistan have been discussing their strategy for what they look upon as the next phase of their jihad against the "crusaders" and the Jewish people, which will be Iraq-focussed, though not necessarily exclusively in Iraqi territory. It is reported that amongst the actions under consideration in this connection are: "* Intensification of attacks on US troops in Afghanistan."* Air-borne and under-water operations directed against the US and British naval ships, particularly aircraft-carriers. The under-water operations may involve the use of jihadi frogmen. The HUM-International, the HUJI and the JEM have in their ranks a large number of ex-servicemen from the Pakistani Army. A drive has now been undertaken to recruit ex-servicemen from the Pakistani Air Force and Navy for possible use against the invaders in Iraq--either directly or indirectly as trainers of the Arab cadres of Al Qaeda." (End of citation)

9. My second wake-up call was issued on June 17, 2003, after the attacks on US troops had started through SAAG paper No. 716 under the title "INDIA & THE DESERT SCORPIONS". I reported in that paper: "A stream of jihadi volunteers from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon and other countries have started moving into Iraq to join what is promised as the mother of all jihads against the USA. Before the occupation, there was no evidence of any links between the Saddam Hussein regime and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and International Islamic Front (IIF), despite apparently fabricated US evidence to the contrary. After the occupation, there are increasing reports of attempts to bring the dregs of Al Qaeda and the IIF from Afghanistan and Pakistan and of Saddam Hussein's Army and Baath Party together for what is described as a new jihad, the like of which the world has not seen before.

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10. "Initial meetings in this regard have already been held in Al Qaeda and IIF hide-outs in Pakistan. There are claims, as yet unsubstantiated, of Saddam being alive and of he and bin Laden soon issuing a joint fatwa against the US and the UK." (End of citation)

11. Writing again on July 2, 2003, just before my departure for the US in a SAAG article titled " LET: : Al Qaeda's Clone", I said:" The LET (Lashkar-e-Toiba) has been collecting funds and recruiting and training volunteers in different parts of Pakistan for assisting the Iraqi fedayeen in their jihad against the US troops in Iraq. Some former members of the Baathist party are already reported to have returned to Iraq after undergoing a crash training course in the LET's camps in Pakistan.

12. "Unless the US itself acts to neutralise the LET leadership, cadres, training camps and bases in Pakistan, instead of depending on Musharraf to do this which he never will, its troops will continue to die in Iraq and the war against international terrorism will not be won. The LET has become as great a threat to regional and international peace and security as Al Qaeda." ( End of citation )

13. During my three-week lecture tour of the USA in July,2003, I had reverted to the happenings in Iraq in an article titled "Musings From the USA" (Paper No.739 of July 18,2003), in which I had stated as follows: "The new breed of jihadis, who are coming out of the deserts of Iraq, one doesn’t know from where, feel Allah is on their side. "We have a fine set of soldiers. The best in the world. We teach them: know the terrain, know the enemy, act decisively," it is said (by the Americans). "Wait and see. They will defeat the jihadists."

14.. "The jihadis swarming out of the madrasas of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries to fight the Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq are being told by their mulla-instructors: "Know Allah, know the Holy Koran and know the glory of martyrdom. You can defeat the American military might."

15.". The Stars & Stripes vs the Holy Koran. That is what the already raging jihad in Afghanistan and the looming one in Iraq are about. When told about the active role of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba in mobilizing jihadis to go to Iraq, one is greeted (in the US) with skepticism. "They don’t know Arabic. How can they operate in Iraq?" one is asked. When one points out that the Chechens, the Filippinos, the Indonesians and others operated in Afghanistan without knowing the local language, one has no answer, but the skepticism persists.

16." The final outcome of the war will affect not only the US, but the entire democratic world. It is in the interests of India and the rest of the democratic world that the US emerges victorious in this war. We had serious differences with the US over the way it invaded and occupied Iraq. We have legitimate grounds for unhappiness over its lack of solidarity with us vis-à-vis the terrorist State of Pakistan.

17. "However, it would be short-sighted on the part of India to let the US falter in this battle. The jihadis have to be vanquished---wherever they are found and the threat posed by them to peace and security removed once and for all.

18. "India could be a valuable ally of the US in this, even without sending its troops to Iraq. The US has the best of its troops and equipment in Afghanistan and Iraq. If they are facing difficulty, it is not for want of resources or reinforcements, but for want of adequate understanding of the jihadi mentality. India, the greatest victim of jihadi terrorism in the world today, understands this mentality better than any other nation.

19." India can share this understanding with the US, but before the US can hope to benefit from this, it has to open its eyes wide and see the primordial source of all jihadi terrorism in the triangle of terrorism constituted by Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia." ( End of citation)

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20. In another despatch from the US (SAAG Paper No.745 of July 26, 2003), titled "IRAQ: JIHAD OF DAILY CUTS" I had stated as follows: "One could make the following assessment, which, for want of further evidence, is still tentative and not as definitive as I would have liked it to be: "a) The plans for the jihad against the American troops, including the modus operandi to be followed, the communications drill to be adopted etc had been drawn up long before the US-UK invasion of Iraq. It has definitely not been improvised after the occupation. To have maintained even this low level of jihad for over two months without suffering a single capture of the foot-soldiers of the jihad is no mean achievement. "b) The experience gained by the pro-bin Laden jihadis in Afghanistan has played a role in the planning and execution of the operations. This would indicate that the degree of involvement of the jihad-innoculated foreign elements from Afghanistan such as the cadres of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) has been higher than estimated by US analysts. "c) The jihadis have been trained in such a manner as to be able to operate autonomously in small cells without the need for much of centralised command and control. The autonomy of operations has been not only in respect of ground strikes, but also intelligence collection and exploitation. Many of the strikes have been against targets of opportunity and not against pre-selected ones. "d) The role played by Saddam Hussein and his sons in the co-ordination and control and in the motivation is not as high as seemed to have been estimated by the US analysts. Even if Saddam is ultimately killed or captured, it would be over-optimistic to expect the jihad to collapse immediately. "e) The level of popular support enjoyed by the jihadis is considerable." ( End of citation) 21. In a subsequent article of August 14, 2003, titled " US In A Bind" (SAAG Paper 762 ), I had stated as follows: " The US is at our mercy. One leg caught in Afghanistan and the other in Iraq. Alla-hu-Akbar! " So said Prof.Hafeez Mohammad Sayeed, the head of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), while addressing a religious congregation earlier this month at Muridke, near Lahore, where it has its headquarters .....The LET, which is a member of bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF) and which is now acting as the standard bearer of Al Qaeda and the IIF, claims that its martyrs' squad in Iraq is protecting Saddam and trying to spirit him out of Iraq to Pakistan so that he could be saved from the hands of the American special forces, which are hunting for him. 22. "How will they spirit him out of Iraq since it will be almost impossible to do so by sea or air? By overland clandestine routes through Iran, they say. It is the same route which is being used by the LET and other members of the IIF to smuggle trained and well-motivated jihadis into Iraq to harass the American troops. One is not certain whether the Iranian authorities are aware of this. It is estimated by knowledgeable sources that at least 80 plus jihad-hardened terrorists from Pakistan, belonging to Al Qaeda and the Pakistani components of the IIF, have already managed to clandestinely move across Iran in ones and twos and join the anti-US jihad in Iraq. 23. "Calls have been made in the Binori madrasa of Karachi and the Akora Khattak madrasa of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) for more Arabic-knowing volunteers to join the jihad in Iraq. The 80 plus contingent, which has already gone, reportedly includes Arabs, Pakistanis and at least four from South-East Asia. This number does not include those from the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM) and other organisations who had travelled by air to Saudi Arabia under the guise of pilgrims during the Haj season and from there moved over to Iraq....... 24. "The LET, which is now practically co-ordinating the jihad world-wide of the IIF due to the incapacity of bin Laden, has, in consultation with the other components of the IIF, made a division of responsibilities. While the survivors of the Taliban and the Hizb-e-Islami of Gulbuddin Heckmatyar will focus on Afghanistan, the survivors of the Al Qaeda and the Pakistani components of the IIF will concentrate on Iraq. 25. "There is no proposal at present to bring any more Iraqi volunteers to Pakistan for training or for smuggling arms and ammunition into Iraq. Thousands of trained fighters and large quantities of arms and ammunition and explosives are already available in Iraq. While the attacks on the American forces and their Iraqi collaborators are being made by the Iraqi as well as non-Iraqi jihadis, the acts of sabotage have been largely the work of Iraqis. For organising the anti-American resistance, lessons have been drawn not only from the jihadi experience in Afghanistan, but also from the experience of the French resistance and the Serb resistance under Tito during the second World War." (End of citation) 26. In the article on the Baghdad blast outside the building housing the UN offices ( SAAG Paper No.769 of August 21, 2003), I had reported as follows: "The jihadi and other resistance elements have been saying that just as the jihad of the 1980s in Afghanistan brought about the collapse of one super power (the USSR), the present jihad in Iraq, which, according to them, is being waged in tandem with that in Afghanistan, will bring about the end of the other super power (the US) too. They claim to have already trapped the US troops in Iraq and do not want any other nation to come to the rescue of the Americans so that they could make them bleed to death." 27. The SAAG Paper No. 781 of September 8, 2003, had reported the following information, which had come from sources in the Binori madrasa of Karachi: "There are indications that Arab nationals of Chechen origin belonging to the Al Qaeda were probably responsible for the four explosions in Iraq recently--three in Baghdad and one at Najaf. The explosions in Baghdad were directed at the Jordanian Embassy, a building housing the offices of the United Nations and its allied organisations and the police headquarters. 28. "According to sources in Pakistan, which are well-informed on the activities of the Osama bin Laden-led International Islamic Front (IIF), about 50 Arab nationals of Chechen origin, who are members of the Al Qaeda or closely associated with it, have infiltrated into Iraq from the Waziristan area of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. They were responsible not only for the attacks on American soldiers in many incidents, but also for the four explosions. They reportedly got the explosives and other materials for the explosions from the ordnance stocks of the disbanded Army of Saddam Hussein. It is said that the explosions, using vehicles, closely resembled those which had taken place in Chechnya in the past. 29. "Elements close to the IIF in Pakistan have been saying that the US is in its most vulnerable position in Iraq and that if the jihadis missed this opportunity to humiliate it, they would not get another like this for some time. They also say that by teaching the US a lesson in Iraq, which it will not forget, they could protect other Islamic countries from similar intervention by the US in future and weaken its credibility as a super power." ( End of citation) 30. Since August 7, the following explosions, believed to have been caused by suicide bombers, have taken place with fatal casualties as indicated against each: 1. Aug.7---Car bomb outside the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad--- 17 2. Aug.19--Truck bomb outside the UN headquarters in Baghdad--- 23 3. Aug.29--Car bomb outside the Imam Ali Mosque at Najaf-- 90 4. Sept. 2-- Car bomb at Police Headquarters in Baghdad---15. Sept.9--Car bomb at office used by US officials at Irbil-- 1 6. Sept.22--Car bomb at checkpoint outside UN headquarters in Baghdad--27. Oct.9--Car bomb at police station in Sadr City district of Baghdad--10 8.Oct.12--Car bomb outside Baghdad hotel accommodating US officials--8 9. Oct.27-- Car bomb outside the International Red Cross Office in Baghdad--1210 to 12. October 27--Car bombs at Bayaa, Shaab and Khadra police stations of Baghdad—2313.Oct.28--Truck bomb outside a police Station in Fallujah--431. There have thus been 13 major car/truck bomb explosions---three each in August and September and seven in October, killing 191 persons. The majority of those killed were innocent civilians, either Iraqis or non-American foreigners working for the UN and other international organisations. The American fatal casualties in suicide bombings have been negligible. 32. One hundred and thirty-two American military personnel have been killed since May 1, when President Bush declared the end of the war. This includes the 15 killed when a helicopter was brought down by jihadi fire on November 2. As against this, only 114 American military personnel were killed by hostile action between March 20 and April 30. 33. The majority of the post May 1 American deaths has been caused by hand-held weapons, mines, rocket-launchers and anti-aircraft missiles, mostly from the stocks of the former Iraqi army. The majority of the suicide explosions are also believed to have involved the use of explosive material from former Iraqi Army stocks. Only in one of the explosions of October 27, the use of foreign explosive material, probably from Portugal, is suspected. 34. Those resorting to suicide bombings have shown no consideration for civilian lives and have shown no sensitivity to the likely adverse impact of such deaths on public opinion, thereby creating public revulsion against those responsible. 35. Those involved in attacks with hand-held weapons etc have taken greater care to restrict the casualties to Americans and to avoid unnecessary civilian casualties. From this, it would appear that while the targeted attacks on the Americans are, most probably, being carried out by disbanded soldiers of the Iraqi Army and Baathist Party members, the suicide bombings are the work of foreign jihadis. The Sunnis of Iraq have never believed in suicide attacks and, as such, it would be very difficult to motivate them to take to suicide terrorism within six months and get a large number of volunteers. 36. The suicide bombings carried out so far resemble more those of the Al Qaeda or the LET or the JEM or the Chechens than those of the Hamas or any other Palestinian group. The deliberate targeting of UN, international

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Red Cross and other humanitarian relief workers resembles similar targeting of non-governmental aid workers by the Taliban and Gulbuddin Heckmatyar's Hizb-e-Islami (HEI) in Afghanistan. There is defintely a clear linkage involving the jihadis of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. 37. The "New York Times" reported as follows on October 28: "Bush Administration officials have estimated that the number of foreign fighters in Iraq is between 1,000 and 3,000, but civilian and military officials here (in Baghdad) say they doubt they are anywhere near that number." 38. A study of reports from the jihadi madrasas of Pakistan indicates that the number of foreign jihadis presently in Iraq is not more than about 200 to 250, who had taken up position in Iraq since February,2003. There has been no large-scale infiltration after May 1. The majority of the non-suicide attacks on American troops has been by Iraqis loyal to Saddam Hussein who continue to have the leadership role. The fact that the explosive material used in all but one of the 13 suicide bombings were of indigenous origin from former Iraqi Army stocks speaks of some co-ordination between the Iraqi and foreign jihadis. It is, however, not yet clear whether they have a common command and control. 39. The performance of the US intelligence continues to be very poor. No worthwhile human (HUMINT) or technical intelligence (TECHINT) has been forthcoming. This is partly due to the linguistic and other difficulties faced by the Americans and partly due to the modus operandi adopted by the jihadis of operating autonomously in small cells, thereby obviating the need for electronic or other means of communications. 40. Even in the absence of well-placed human sources, the US should have been able to collect a lot of useful peripheral information from the interrogation of suspects. Even the absence of this would show that all those arrested and questioned so far had little access to the jihadis and hence little knowledge of them. 41. It is important for the US to pay more attention to the Pakistani components of the IIF. The situation can still be retrieved by the US if it acts firmly on the Musharraf Government to make it effectively neutralise the activities of the LET and other members of the IIF from Pakistani territory and stop the collection and flow of funds from Pakistan to the Iraqi jihadis. 42. All that the US needs is one major intelligence coup through the arrest of someone belonging to the hard core of the jihadis. Such a break-through has not yet come. When it does, the US will have reasonable chances of turning the tide of the jihad. If it doesn't, the situation will continue to go from bad to worse. The fact that even after six months of trying by US intelligence officials such a break-through has not come speaks much of the cohesion and impenetrability of the jihadis. (The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Convenor, Advisory Committee, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Chennai Chapter. E-Mail: corde@vsnl.com ) ANNEXURE--IISouth Asia Analysis Group: Paper no. 789 12. 09. 2003 REJOICING AT US SUFFERINGS IN IRAQ by B. Raman"The US will never forgive those who rejoice at its sufferings."

2. So said President George Bush while addressing officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on September 10, 2003.

3. Is he aware how the community of retired officers of the Pakistani Armed Forces has been rejoicing at the difficulties encountered by the American soldiers in Iraq and at their sufferings and appealing to the Pakistanis to rush to Iraq to make it what Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 to Osama bin Laden, in Al Qaeda, has called the graveyard of the US?

4. If he is not, here are some examples taken from the "Friday Times", the prestigious fortnightly of Lahore, which, in turn, has collated them from various Urdu dailies: * Col. (retd) Abu Zarrar: "US soldiers are like broiler chicks. Easy to eat. Could be quickly defeated. Americans are besieged in Iraq and would soon be defeated." (as reported by the "Nawai Waqt") * Gen.(retd) Zahid Ali Akbar: "If America bombed Pakistan, then Pakistan should threaten the USA with a nuclear strike on its naval fleet nearest to Pakistan. If too many body bags reached America, the public there would reject Bush and elect a Democratic President who may firmly take the US back to the UN. If I were in Saddam's shoes, I would have made chemical weapons. If I were Gen.Musharraf, I would make a missile with a 2000-mile range so as to reach Israel." ("Khabrain") * Gen. (retd) M.H.Ansari: "If Muslims went to Iraq, the USA would be defeated in 30 to 35 days." ("Nawai Waqt") * Gen. (retd) Riaz Ahmed Chaudhry : "US soldiers cannot fight without eating chocolates. The world of Islam is ready to fight against the Christian crusaders." ("Khabrain") * Major (retd) Saeed Tiwana: "The US would soon be defeated in Iraq with tens of thousands dead." ("Pakistan") * Air Commodore (retd) Tariq Majid: "The Jews are behind the (terrorist) incidents in Pakistan. The plane of Pakistan's Air Chief Mushaf Ali Mir was electronically crippled by the MOSSAD from a satellite. America has attacked Iraq not to grab its oil, but to weaken the Islamic world. " ("JANG" ) My Comment: Mushaf Ali Mir was killed in a mysterious plane crash in February last just as Gen. Zia-ul-Haq in August 1988. * Lt.Gen. Hamid Gul (retd), former Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI): "The US Army is bogged down in Iraq. It will soon be begging Iraq for its POWs. The USA cannot run away. It is stuck. Qatar, Jordan and Turkey too would become the graveyard of American troops. The Iraqi troops would not let the Americans escape. ("Pakistan")

5. These are the comments of only the retired officers of the Pakistani Armed Forces, who are clandestinely helping the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Gulbuddin Heckmatyar's Hizbe Islami in Afghanistan and rallying the members of the Pakistani jihadi organisations to go to Iraq to make it a graveyard for the what they call the chocolate-eating American troops.

6. Similar feelings and sentiments prevail amongst large sections of serving officers too, but they do not express them in public.

7. "Serves the Americans right". That's the over-all feeling of "satisfaction" in large sections of serving and retired officers.

8. And yet, President Bush calls Pakistan the USA's frontline ally.

9.What an ally!

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and, Convenor, Advisory Committee, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Chennai Chapter. E-Mail: corde@vsnl.com )

Ellie