Iqbal Hamza
Another major disadvantage for Pakistan in its conflict with Afghanistan is that it is confronting ideologically motivated fighters, while Pakistani soldiers are fighting largely for material incentives. Pakistani generals, therefore, struggle to provide a compelling motivation to troops engaged in fighting against Afghanistan. What cause, then, would a Pakistani soldier believe he is fighting for?
Is it a war against “infidels”? Every Pakistani soldier knows that the soldiers on the Afghan side are Muslims who are deeply committed to Islamic practices and beliefs.
Is it a war for the defense of the homeland? That argument also becomes difficult to sustain, because Pakistan the side that initiated the aggression; its forces are therefore viewed as invading troops engaged in an attack against fellow Muslims. Likewise, many influential Pakistani clerics have remained silent, as they are believed to understand that Pakistani generals have initiated an unjust war and an act of aggression.
Historically, whenever Pakistan has been involved in war, religious scholars across the country would collectively issue calls for jihad. This time, however, despite significant efforts by Pakistani generals, many clerics were unwilling to issue such a decree. As a result, only a small number of individuals were eventually brought forward to provide a religious ruling. Even then, the ruling was issued without detailed explanation or supporting arguments. Many Pakistanis themselves question why, in a country with hundreds of thousands of clerics, only a handful stepped forward and issued what as a weak and poorly substantiated fatwa.
In contrast, every Afghan soldier knows that aggression has been committed against them, and that defending their homeland and their lives is both a legal and religious right. Protecting the Islamic system is also regarded as a religious duty. If one is killed on this path, he is considered a noble martyr; and if he kills the opposing side, he believes that Allah will grant him reward.
Every Afghan soldier knows that he is defending Sharia and the Islamic system against the English legal framework, and that he is fighting those who are enemies of Islam and its religious symbols. Afghan soldiers also see themselves as rising in defense of the desecration of the Holy Qur’an, and in response to the killing of students of religious schools (Madrasas), as well as women and children, because, this is what both Sharia and basic humanity demand.
History shows that whenever a conflict has taken place between material interests and deeply held beliefs, belief has ultimately prevailed over material considerations.
On one side are Pakistani soldiers who fight for their salaries, while on the other are Afghan soldiers who fight in pursuit of martyrdom. Pakistani generals are confronting for the first time a force of people who value death more than life. Such individuals are unafraid of technology and paying little attention to material resources; they do not seek rank or financial reward, but aspire only to martyrdom.
They are engaged with a people who show little concern for death; if one of them is killed, ten more rise to take his place. They have extensive experience in confronting and defeating enemies and show no fear of any adversary. They enter the battlefield with the intention either of attaining martyrdom or emerging as victors.
Such fighters never grow weary of war and possess great patience and endurance. Hunger, thirst, and hardship are regarded by them as distinctions granted by Allah.
Those are the people against whom the whole world once came with wealth and power, yet it did not succeed in subduing them; rather, the world ultimately bowed and saluted them. Those who were not defeated by a global superpower, what do Pakistani generals think, that they will defeat them with a few hired soldiers?
Yes, this time Pakistani generals have become entangled in a place where their opponents have both the patience for war and the readiness for it.
The predicament of Pakistani generals has arisen because the world’s superpowers have already reached the conclusion that they should no longer involve themselves in conflict with the Afghans, yet they have chosen to engage with them.
Pakistani generals think that this, too, will be a war lasting only a few months or a few weeks, but they do not realize that Afghans do not consider wars lasting weeks or months to be real wars.
Afghans prepare for every war with the expectation that it may last for years, and Afghans have often won wars even with empty hands.
In the history of Afghanistan, whenever Afghans fought and won wars, they did so not with material resources, but through the strength of their faith, patience, endurance, and perseverance. In contrast, Pakistani generals have never had the patience for prolonged wars in their entire history, nor can they provide soldiers capable of sustaining such conflicts. Any Pakistani soldier who comes to the front for a long-term war demands a high salary, which is impossible due to the corruption of Pakistani generals.
In summary, the engagement of Pakistani generals with Afghanistan, despite lacking any legal or religious justification, being unable to provide motivation to their soldiers, and offering no satisfactory explanation to their own people and politicians, is another major reason for the potential collapse of Pakistani generals and the Pakistani military regime, a development that the entire world is expected to witness very soon.
