Control of Oil Routes, Military Bases Spurs U.S. Destabilization of Pakistan

Control of Oil Routes, Military Bases Spurs U.S. Destabilization of Pakistan


"The Pakistani working class widely believes that the country's military and
ISI (its secret service) is supporting terrorist groups. They see how freely
terrorists move about the country with heavy equipment, even rocket
launchers," said a community organizer. "Suicide bombers usually attack in
crowded working-class neighborhoods. The police and army don't protect the
people living there, they only protect the rich and government officials."


According to a January 15 NY Times report, a former Pakistani official
acknowledged that dozens of ISI officers support the jihadis even as others
in the ISI and army fight them.


The chaos and terrorism may very well be leading to a
U.S.-drivendestabilization and break-up of the country, accompanied by
U.S. militarization, as happened in Yugoslavia. A 2005 report by the U.S.
National Intelligence Council and the CIA forecast a "Yugoslav-like fate"
for Pakistan.


U.S. rulers can hardly support Pakistani president Musharref given his lack
of support in the country. With his imposition of a state of emergency and
the assassination of U.S.-backed Benazir Bhutto — which precipitated the
current crisis — his government has lost even the fig-leaf of a "democratic"
state, which could speed the break-up process.


Evidence points to the U.S. destabilizing the country, taking advantage of
its history — a Muslim nation carved out artificially by British
imperialism. For the Pakistani working class, "Balkanization" means more
exploitation and repression and more deaths.

The U.S. is fomenting social, ethnic and religious strife. In Balochistan
(one of the country's four provinces), the U.S. and Britain have been
covertly supporting the BLA — the Balochistan Liberation Army — which
closely resembles the Kosovo Liberation Army in Yugoslavia. The split-up of
— and U.S. military intervention in — Yugoslavia, enabled the U.S. to build
one of the world's largest military bases there.


Militarization of Balochistan to control its potential wealth from other
imperialists is critical. Balochistan is strategically important, bordering
on the Arabian Sea near the Straits of Hormuz through which passes 30% of
the world's oil. The province also has untapped oil and gas, while pipelines
are slated to pass through it from Iran to India. U.S.-backed terrorists are
already scaring off Chinese capitalists and workers. Engineers building a
deep seaport at Gwadar on the Arabian Sea have returned to China. The U.S.
military is already using the area for commando forays into Iran.


The U.S. also has several military bases in Pakistan; controls the country's
airspace; and is carrying out bombings from the Afghan side of the
Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Those attacks, plus Pakistani Army helicopter
gunship bombings, suicide bombers and fighting between Islamic radicals and
soldiers all have killed thousdands of civilians. Meanwhile, since 2003 the
U.S. military has more than doubled its troop strength in Afghanistan, from
9,000 to 22,500.


Another part of the U.S. "Balkanization" plan is to send U.S. troops into
Pakistan. Washington is pressuring the Pakistani government — in the name of
the "war on terrorism" — to allow U.S. Special Forces to pursue the Taliban
from Afghanistan into Pakistan – a move, incidentally, backed publicly by
presidential aspirant Barack Obama. So far Pakistan's army has agreed to a
small number of Special Forces to work alongside the 100,000 Pakistani
soldiers deployed in the border regions. A deal is underway for the U.S. to
train 60,000 additional Pakistani soldiers in the "war on terror."

"Don't underestimate the Pakistani masses," declared the community
organizer. "The Pakistani army, 60% from the Punjab ethnic group and 40%
Pathan, has lost more soldiers since 2001 than the U.S. has lost in Iraq and
Afghanistan combined. Already some soldiers are refusing to fight. In both
ethnic groups soldiers see that they are killing other working-class
families and may very well come to understand they must turn the guns on
their own commanders and on the imperialists."


There are Pakistani workers who agree with PLP that nationalism is not the
solution. That is only a fight for a different boss — a Balochistani boss
will replace a Punjabi or a Pathan. Workers have no borders. "The answer to
"Balkanization," concluded the community organizer, "is for all workers in
all the provinces as well as those in neighboring India, Iran and Nepal to
build one single party that takes them successfully on the road to communist
revolution."