Ike, what do you make of this report about the former ISI chief?
US to target Pakistan after Afghanistan: Ex-ISI chief
Paritosh Parasher in Sydney
When the United States finishes its war against Afghanistan, it will target countries like Pakistan and Iraq, a former Pakistan intelligence chief has said.
"When the US finishes with its war against Afghanistan, it will target Pakistan. It will also make Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia a part of its campaign against Islam," Hamid Gul, a former head of the Inter-Services Intelligence, told Australia's SBS Radio's Urdu programme.
Gul, believed to be one of the principal architects in the creation of Afghanistan's ruling Taleban militia, has been a vociferous opponent of US attacks against Afghanistan.
Gul said he refuses to believe that the US is attacking Afghanistan only to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.
He was also asked about Laden's reported appeal to Pakistani Muslims to support the embattled Taleban.
Gul said the appeal was unnecessary: "Pakistanis who read the Quran are aware that when an Islamic nation gives a jihad call, it becomes every Muslim's duty to follow Allah's directive. The people (in Pakistan) will soon understand that the (US) target is our existence and faith."
"America has not clarified what their objectives are in this campaign and I do not have any doubt that their target is Islam and the Islamic way of life," he said.
"Others may be unaware of this, but as I take keen interest in the way Americans think, I am sure it is a campaign against the Muslim world.
"They (US) are saying they will fight a 50-year war. You do not need 50 years to conquer a country or to stop a particular activity emanating from it, but you may need 50 years to finish an ideology, or a way of thinking."
"This is what they did with Communism. It took them 50 years to get rid of Communism. They will target Pakistan as our very origins are based on Islam. The concept of an Islamic way of life as we know it today, owes its sheer existence to the birth of Pakistan," he said.
Gul said that the US had failed to make much of an impact in its war against Afghanistan.
"Unprecedented American attacks have failed in Afghanistan because Afghans are united in the belief that they are serving Islam. Allah tests this nation every time by pitting it against superpowers because He knows only the Afghans can fight against such odds and emerge victorious," Gul said. He was unequivocal in his praise for the Taleban. "I have spent 36 years in the (Pakistani) army and there is no country in the world that can face the wrath of the US the way Afghanistan is doing." |
