The Psychological Warfare against Pakistan

By K. Ashraf

(http://www.pukhtoonistangazette.com/...=1549&category=)

The spokespersons of present government think, or at least that is the impression they give, that Pakistan is fighting just one war—war against terrorism. The fact of the matter is, at current moment, Pakistan is fighting many wars—wars even more dangerous than war against terrorism.

One such war is psychological war; so far this war has been paid very little attention or barely talked about by the naïve rulers of Pakistan. The entities that have launched this war against Pakistan, they intend to destroy the spirit of the people of Pakistan. They know once they destroy the spirit of the people, Pakistan will automatically crumble as a state.

For this purpose, they are trying to create three conditions among Pakistanis: 1) Fear, 2) Anger, and 3) Confusion.

These entities are constantly generating events that create fear among Pakistanis. Acts of terror such as suicide bombings, target killings, rocket launchings, and destruction of state assets like railway lines, bridges, schools and attacks on Pakistanis through any other means are nothing but efforts to create fear among Pakistanis.

Fear creates ripples in the shape of insecurity, helplessness, anger, discontent and confusion. Fearful people loose the ability to think clearly. They do not know how to react sensibly. Under fear, they lose the ability to make good decisions. They are forced to make bad decisions that create further chaos and confusion.
Consequently, social fabric starts breaking, which halts various supply lines of the society…the supply lines that keep the society intact and functional. Food shortages make peoples’ lives miserable. They run for food and forget the other priorities. Inaccessibility of food items forces them break their normal human life routines. They start killing each other or committing suicides.

This chaos also affects economic activities, like halting production in factories, raising unemployment of labor force, halting educational activities in academic institutions, halting the transport system, and disruption in effective supply of goods of daily needs.

The designers, the operatives, the conductors of this war cleverly put all the components in place to produce the desired results in Pakistan.
Today we clearly see that Pakistanis are living in the state of fear, they are angry, they are confused; the supply lines are disrupted, the factories are shut down, the laborers are out of work, the transportation system is broken, the government is either dysfunctional or unknowingly, under the pressure of international agencies, making bad decision which are aimed to make the situation worse.

Can Pakistan successfully fight back these psychological wars threatening its very existence? It the current government continues its present policies, definitely not.
What is the best way fight the psychological war launched against Pakistan?
The foremost step the government needs to take is to recognize the fact that certain entities are fighting psychological war against Pakistan. The government also needs to recognize that winning psychological war against Pakistan is a pre-requisite to win the war against terrorism. Without winning psychological war against Pakistan, the government cannot win the war against terrorism.
Then, as a first step, make possible the accessibility of basic necessities of life easier, cheaper, and in abundance. Fix the broken systems such as electricity, gas, transportation on emergency basis. Similarly, restore the supply lines necessary to restart Pakistan’s factories, put laborers back to work, peasants back in agricultural and students back to academic activities. Fix these systems even if you have to divert funds from the defense or any other important sector.
Do not accept the dictates of IMF and World Bank even if they deny you the further delivery of funds. Without fixing these broken systems you cannot end the fears crawling in peoples’ minds—the fears created by the entities that are fighting psychological war against Pakistan.

Pakistan will definitely win war against terrorism if it sets its priorities right, make the right decisions, and gives up current inactivity at government level. The survival of Pakistan depends on defeating the entities that are waging psychological warfare against Pakistan. The key to win this psychological warfare against Pakistan is to get rid of growing fear, anger and confusion in the minds of Pakistanis.