War of Occupation and the Media War

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by Mohammad Faheem

"The tremendous advances in the field of science and technology and the cultural and social evolution have given another dimension to the art of war by bringing in the media to play its very effective role. This is an era when prior to the war game of arsenals, intellectual war is fought. This has been named as the media war in the modern language. This sort of war is carried out with such severity and strength that at times, the stage of arsenal war seldom comes. It is so powerful a war that the weaker and the ill prepared party becomes frustrated and prone to psychological defeat to the extent that it surrenders to the enemy as an easy prey without confronting him in the field."

All the living organisms at the surface of the globe are proactive by the dint of their instinct for self-preservation and self perpetuation. Therefore, they are always in search of food and safety from the hazards of severe weather and environment. They have to struggle hard to achieve these ends, so much so that they have to fight their adversaries and compatriots risking their own life as well. At the start of human race on this planet, life was limited just to two basic urges, the sex and the self-protection. The cause of the first killing in history was a marriage dispute between the two sons of Adam (AS), when Qabeel had killed his own brother Habeel. With the passage of time the horizon of man’s needs, desires and interests widened and a marked difference occurred between the man and other animals as for as their requirements and needs were concerned. Man had to struggle hard and fight for his diversified needs which expanded further and further as the time passed. A visible turn took place when man had to relocate himself from an individualistic phase to a life of collectivity in the form of a clan, tribe, state and country. The result was that the fights hitherto fought individually, were changed to the type of wars to be fought on collective basis to overpower others and grab their resources forcefully. Amongst them some wars were religiously motivated as well. In the beginning such wars were fought with very crude and simple weapons like arrows, slingshots, axes, drags and knives.

The urge to dominate and the desire to overpower others, paved the way for the discovery and invention of new and more complicated and effective war-equipment, arsenal and gun-powder. This era was followed by the industrial revolution when the whole gamut of the warfare was changed into a complicated machine-war. With clicking of a single button at one place, man can destroy today things thousands of miles away without any physical movement involving risk and threat to life. Nonetheless, the agreed argument is that despite acquiring all capabilities of destroying the whole lot of the world with the modern war technology, it is impossible for any power to sustain the possession of the land one occupies by force. To keep the occupied land and population under control, require the human hands of people of marked bravery and valor. This statement might have been seen with doubt and suspicion till the end of the 20th century as there were few examples to offer to the authenticity of this aphorism. However, the situation in Afghanistan after the attack of a super power applying all fatal and destructive modern war equipment prove the genuineness of the claim.

America with all her might aided by more than 3 dozen countries of its allies, could not occupy the land of Afghanistan even after striking with thousands of tons of gun-powder and using deadly air and ground arsenal of the most modern sophistication. We remember the fate of the USSR earlier which shattered into pieces after its aggression on the same soil. The empty handed and resource-less section of the Afghan Pushtoons has forced the mighty aggressor to pull out without any achievement of his target in any degree. America failed to subdue the unruly Afghans as it is not the gun but the man behind the gun who will brave to keep the land occupied indefinitely. The modern war technology cannot work beyond a certain stage. For playing a decisive role beyond that point your weapon and technology fails as far as sustainability of the occupation is concerned. Such an occupation not only requires the gallantry of man and strength of his muscles but more than that it requires a moral dimension and deep conviction for being a genuine occupier of the lands. In the case under reference, neither the Americans have the strength of courage nor do they have the moral ground to justify their occupation of a foreign land, Afghanistan in this case. As such the whole game becomes a useless exercise, which has resulted in the wholesale carnage of human life and destruction of billions of property. This war started on the false ruses, has become now a case of false egoism and the American thinking of its being a mighty super power that cannot be challenged. Similar is the case of engagement of the Indian military in the occupied Kashmir. With all their brutalities the occupying forces could not kill the high spirit of the people of Kashmir for the freedom of their motherland. The same is the case with the Palestinians who have been confronting a brutal enemy equipped with all sorts of weaponry and fully backed by America and the evangelical Europe. The wars and brutalities are thus the results of egoism, the urge to dominate others, the greed to occupy others resources and above all the religious sentiments. This is well testified by the declaration of the ex American president Bush when he called his aggression as the Crusade, the religiously motivated war against the Muslims. Today’s war is a war of egoism, occupation and is mainly fought by the forceful media and can be termed as media war.

The tremendous advances in the field of science and technology and the cultural and social evolution have given another dimension to the art of war by bringing in the media to play its very effective role. This is an era when prior to the war game of arsenals, intellectual war is fought. This has been named as the media war in the modern language. This sort of war is carried out with such severity and strength that at times, the stage of arsenal war seldom comes. It is so powerful a war that the weaker and the ill prepared party becomes frustrated and prone to psychological defeat to the extent that it surrenders to the enemy as an easy prey without confronting him in the field. Americans did the same tactics with Pakistan before its offensive on Afghanistan.

Musharraf, the then dictator was so overwhelmed with the rhetoric of “with us or with the enemy” that he was forced into surrender without making use of any defensive tactic. He was forced to join hands with the enemy against a Muslim country against whom the alleged charges had never been proven in any court of law or any other relevant forum. Today the dictator is living in a foreign country and is the most hated person in the eyes of his countrymen. Unfortunately, a severe media war is on in the country where the very foundation of the country is weakened with the help of the secular segment who are averse to any ideology of Pakistan. These elements are supported and encouraged by the foreign agencies and media centers, which are running special programs in order to demonize the forces responsible for the solidarity of the country. The supporters of the Islamic values and the ideology of the country are not only less in number but at the same time lacking enough resources to work in a befitting manner. On the top of that if ever such people find access to the media, lot of hurdles are created in their way. Unfortunately, a great number of the Islamic minded people are not in a position to appreciate the importance of media in the propagation of Islamic teachings. At the same time there are others who are interpreting the Quranic teachings in a way to make them acceptable and palatable to the seculars and the anti Islamic forces who want Islam to be interpreted according to their will and taste. It is time to understand the importance of the role of media in the propagation of the true concept of Islam and it is the responsibility of all of us to make maximum use of the media sources for the purpose. In case the importance of this imperative is not recognized there is every possibility of the ill-informed and less educated people to fall prey to the misguiding propaganda of the secular and anti-Islamic elements. An active role on the part of the rightful people will help block the way of so-called modern Islamic interpreters, who are giving the basic fundamentals of Islam a meaning never acceptable to the Quran and the real teaching of Islam. Let us make use of this very indispensable source for the service and cause of spreading the true perception of Islam as a Deen. This gigantic responsibility needs the attention of all those who want the establishment of a just social collective system based on the guiding principles of the Quran and Sunna.