Re: Pakistan's autoimmune disease -- Holy war
There are more factors to it than what's been mentioned, although many points mentioned here are valid.
Great post by the OP, by the way. Flawlessly written.
Now, other factors that some of you folks are clearly not mentioning: The "jihadi" movement is no south-asia menace. Its not restricted to one area. It is global. And its being fueled by resentments from muslims around the world towards the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pictures of ladies in burqas pleading to the American soldiers in Iraq to leave the men of their family alone creates resentment. And the fact is that war is not clean, war atrocities are taking place on both sides, and its hard to put your blame on any one side. And if we dig deeper, the real reason for these wars isn't to "share the joy of democracy" around the world; its to fight over dwindling supplies of strategic sources of oil. And that's not all. You wait. These glaciers are melting and global warming is real. Its one thing when your oil prices go skyrocketing high; its another when drinking water will become as pricy as oil. (Ironically, one of the religious predictions of the end-of-times in Islam is that people will hold wars over water, but that's just a side point).
Nothing happens without some external influence. The central control of this jihadi movement - Al Qaeda or Taliban or whatever - wants the Americans out. They want full control over resources they feel shouldn't be manipulated by "white people", and this goes back to the effects of a suddenly changing Arab society, where obviously, some people just haven't been able to cope with the social change.
They need to roost somewhere so they can carry on their evil-minded plans of taking over the world. Logically, where would anyone choose to do that? In a place with near zero control over the law and order situation.
And it just so happens that Pakistan hasn't ever really bothered to fully control its tribal areas, or NWFP or Balochistan.
So is it really Musharraf's fault? I don't think so. I think he just came into power around a time where these things would have inevitably happened anyway. He could very well still be in the army and Nawaz Sharif could be in power now, and it'd all be Nawaz's fault - bloody baldy creating these religious retards.
But that's not been the situation. Your jihaadis were there - they've been there for centuries gaining momenum as the Islamic ummah around the world fell into ignorance post-Islamic empire age. And as the ignorance grew and as the materialism swept into the hands of the few muslims around the world, and as we muslims keep mistreating each other (when was the last time YOU spoke to a begger or servant in Pakistan with the same respect you'd give your mother?), it opened a vacuum. And it just so happens that there is someone there to fill it. Jihaadis. And they're armed with money coming in from oil-rich Saudi and Arab families who will absolutely do anything to save their societies from becoming Americanized.
Don't bother playing the blame game. All this is so circular and so inter-connected. It had to play out like this. It couldn't have come to be in any other way.