Pakistan - A failed Nation based on Islamic Radicalism

The words that define 'Pakistan' in the 21st century are Terrorist Attacks, Drone Strikes, Suicide Bombers, Nuclear Weapons, Natural Calamities, Political Instability, Military Rule, Radical Islam and an Economy on the verge of collapse. Currently the country's economy is failing dangerously to even meet its external payment obligations.

External debt servicing of Pakistan rose to an alarming $7 billion in 2014 which is 80% of Pakistan's

foreign exchange reserves. With no foreign inflows, no release of installments from the IMF and no interest of foreign investors in the country has made the gravity of the situation even more alarming.

The Nawaz Sharif civilian government that was elected 14 months ago has failed to defeat the terrorists or even stop their advance, get the economy back on track and also tame its own military.

Islamic Radicalization in the country has reached a completely new level where the same soldiers who swore to protect the country were involved in hijacking a Pakistani Navy Missile Frigate a week ago. The extent of radicalization within the armed forces of Pakistan is clearly visible.

The question now is "How safe are Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons?"
It is just a matter of time when Islamic Terrorists attack Pakistan's Nuclear installations and Nuclear Missile Command Centers and take control of the country's dreaded nuclear arsenal.

Both India and Pakistan started off together as independent nations in the August of 1947. India choose a path of becoming a Republic Nation not aligned with any one religion in spite of an 82%+ Hindu majority and on the other hand Pakistan committed its biggest mistake of declaring itself as an ISLAMIC Republic. This religious branding over the years has fueled radicalization and hatred towards every non-Islamic culture within and outside of Pakistan.

India leaped into the 21st century to become the world's 3rd largest GDP in terms of Purchasing Power as of 2014 according to the IMF, World Bank and CIA Reports. India took major economic strides, expanded its Armed Forces and continues to modernize them at a frantic pace. An expanding economy that sees no signs of slowing down even in the next decade has allowed successive governments in New Delhi to increase the Defence Budget every year that now stands at USD $37.5 billion dollars. The figure rises to $47.8 billion as of 2014 if Pension of ex-servicemen and funding for secretive military projects is included in the calculation.

Pakistan cannot match India man-for-man or gun-for-gun. India is pursuing an ambitious modernization program across all of its armed services. Formations of Aircraft Carrier Battle groups, raising of new Mountain Strike Corps to take on China, building and inducting an array of hi-tech stealth warships, launching dedicated military satellites, nuclear submarines, state-of-the-art fighter jets and bombers is just the tip of the iceberg when one talks about India's military modernization.

One the other hand with a defence budget of $5.7 billion, Pakistan has very few options when it comes to modernizing its armed forces. The majority of the funds are utilized in salaries, pensions and upkeep or maintenance of defence equipment. There is barely anything left for the armed forces to purchase or induct newer systems. The Pakistani Army gets 48% of the whole defence budget while 20% goes to the Pakistani Air force and the Navy gets only 10%.

The new Narendra Modi government in India which has been in office for a little over 100 days has already begun shaping the country's future to challenge China's economic and military superiority in Asia and the Indian Ocean. PM Narendra Modi is personally overlooking every national infrastructure and defence project of India and has sworn to end Red Tapism from the country. Signs of that are clearly visible with the stock markets of the country booming at all time high and foreign investors queuing with billions of dollars for investments in India.

Pakistan is no longer even a contestant to the race to the top. There is no way Pakistan can catch up to its big brother and hence it has now indulged in a game of cat & mouse by trying to pull India down in every way possible. Pakistan now focuses on terrorists infiltration, injecting fake currency notes into the Indian financial system and increasing tensions on the border with India. This has partly helped Pakistan get the attention of the international community to settle the J&K dispute.

But the more India turns itself into an Economic & Military powerhouse, the lesser the chances are for anyone to bring India to the table. The birth of Bangladesh which was India's master plan is by far the biggest wound Pakistan has ever received from India since independence and hence it has always wanted to take J&K away from India. But it is difficult to imagine how a nation which is on the verge of bankruptcy would defeat or force a regional superpower like India to let go even an inch of its territory.

Gone are the days when the decision makers in New Delhi use to worry about Pakistan's military. They are more worried about a nuclear armed Pakistan collapsing which would eventually destabilize and threaten every non-Islamic country in the world.

A brief depiction of Syrian Civil War

Syrian Civil War into its 4th year now. Started from the splinters of Arab Spring; paddled as a political movement to dethrone Bashar Al Assad for alleged suppression of Non Alawaites sect has traversed into many horrendous and treacherous routes. The peaceful political movement first divided its population among different cities and towns forming a unexpected solid armored shatterproof battlezone which Assad has not been expecting. Determined to crush the once peaceful movement, Assad vowed to his regional ally Iran for their financial support and Hezbollah interference apart from being granted with military equipments from old friend Russia. The movement then turned violent when Assad ordered firing on peaceful protestors with gun fighting started on urban streets of Damascus, Aleppo, Homs.

The battle was getting propelled upon the arrival of Hezbollah utilizing its military experience to crush the rivals. There was no way that united rivals could stand against mighty air power of Assad and Hezbollah's experience. The defeat was unanimously sure for the rivals until that fear of defeat divided the rivals into various moderate and hardline Islamic factions giving birth to Free Syrian Army (moderate); whose fighters were defected soldiers from Assad's forces, Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Al Nusra and another ferocious brutal Al Qaeda offshoot called as ISIL or ISIS later commonly known as IS (Islamic State) whose purpose was to carve out a oil rich region and form a Caliphate. Most of analysts believe that IS was gradually transformed from the Al Qaeda in Iraq in the course of time during US intervention in Iraq. Very little is known about its mysterious leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, who was once detained in Guantanamo before being freed later.

This rivals were turned into rebels fighting both Assad Army and each other's faction. The street fighting incited into a full fledged war. Caught in the middle of that were innocent civilians and humanitarian workers which can be sermoned as a collateral damage. Tens of hundred died or killed everyday in middle of the firefight and the violence now roaring to a new level. Winning the war or defeating any faction seems unconclusive in a war like this. With war boiling all around, hopeless and crushed civilians started their first exodus to neighboring countries like Lebnon, Turkey and Jordan. It was shocking to me to find out a refugee camp in Jordan called Zatari camp run by UN which later became the largest and populous refugee camp in the world accomodating millions of Syrian civilians. The once prospered, multi cultured, vibrant Syria was in its ruins with many historical heritage sites levelled to the ground in barrel bombing.

Many moderate rebels turned their eye to West and US for their support or intervention, but all turned vain thought Obama and Western leaders Merkel, Hollande and Cameron wanted Assad to step down. Looking down to regional support were Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and UAE. But the war by then spread into a religious war among Alawaites, a commonly Shia sect and Sunnis. An outside interference would only be ethical now as all regional opponent were Sunnis. Rather giving benefit of doubt to moderate rebels group, they chose to arm the hardliners Islamic militants which had already started to recruit foreign fighters from other countries like Chechyna, France, Africa etc, but denying the fact of arming them commonly in media. The war became a trickster game now which includes dirty politics, occupation, Oil and power. Assad army now face multiple enemies and factions and it is now quite forseeable to find that all of his Syria were not under his control anymore. He however was able to retain Damascus and port city Latakia but Aleppo, Homs, Dara and Raqqa saw severe fihhting and bombings, so severe that neither sides were used to rest at night.

It was always a tug of war, when we heard the condemnable incident of Chemical attack on the suburbs of Damascus, Ghouta which rumuored to have killed thousands of civilians. No side took any admittance rather making allegations on each other. That however angered the UN and US which ordered a multi national effort to destroy all chemical weapons from Syria, which Assad agreed owing to pressure from International powers. The war however never talked of any stoppage time or ceasefire except in 2014, in its 4th year, rebels n government forces agreed to call ceasefire and vacate Homs once for all upon a truce signed by UN. However the war was still brewing in other politically important cities and moderate rebels were helpless now fighting both Assad army and Islamic militants like IS and Al Nusra.

By 2014, IS was declared as the wealthiest terrorist organization, head quartered in Raqqa and forming a caliphate. To a very few, it strike their mind that IS would now be called the most dreaded, brutal terrorist organization in the world inspiring many other terrorist organization around the world to support the Caliphate and its mysteriou leader Baghdadi. To most of the war analysts in Middle East, it was quite obvious that How come a terrorist organization like IS be the wealthiest. One undeniable fact was the funding received from wealthy Sheikhs in Qatar, SA, UAE who are Sunni muslims. The othe sources of funding were obvious too but revealations were shocking. IS in their Caliphate imposed strict, brutal Sharia law which turned the heat into non Sunni and the minorities in the region. The non sunni and other religious minorities were told to convert or pay taxes. The third option was to be shot dead or beheaded. Secondly another source of funding was from the illegal supply of Oil from the captured territory to other cities, neighboring Iraqi middleman and even to the Assad government itself. Thirdly the money that came from extortion, kidnappings, looting of banks and selling minority women as slaves. Infact IS principles were so dreaded and brutal, that even Al Qaeda decided to make part with it. Assad army and Hezbollah now faces a new kind of conventional army which mastered the online recruitments of Jihadis from various far flung countries. IS uses extensive social media platforms to advertise their brand and skills in live war apart from advertising their propaganda and executions. This inspired new eligible recruits to be motivated. By some, it is estimated that IS has a strength of 30000 to 40000 fighters. They were immensly successful in capturing key military bases from Assad Army in many cities by outnumbering them. They were now in possession of Assad weapons, tanks and artilleries, honing their skills, harnessing their power and brutal belief system. They grow by each day and the rest of the world can just see them growing. They are in control of many parts of porus borders between Syria and Turkey and fought a demonic suicidal war with Syrian kurds recently in the town of Kobane for the control of main highway checkpoint with Turkey. They poses now a great danger to their own countries if they were return to someday and ignite their terror policies. Afterall they are battle hardened Islamic militants who were biased to do anything they think of, is a infidel. They were little known, less funded rebel group at the begining of the war but now times changed in 4 years of Syrian Civil War which sees no end in near approaching time. For me and many alike, it would not be wrong to say that it is the rise of ferocious Islamic State (IS) rather than never ending ongoing Syrian Civil War.

Note: War never changes anything. But only bring Chaos.