The belt from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is the most destructive, gullible and complex region in the world. The acts of terrorism and extremism are a daily routine in this part. We live in times where we are one crazy act (in the name of Allah or Ram, Taliban or LeT) away from being blown up. There is a desperate need for a solution or it could all smoke up to hell and beyond. As far as I am concerned, I believe in the theory of solving it ourselves. For a start each of these nations need a strong leader that can speak to its masses and stay distinct of the west. Lets take a look at some of these nations and the crisis that they are pretending to deal with.

Iraq, not so long ago was led by Saddam Hussein, a dictator. The general consensus against a dictator is that it does not tolerate opposition. One day 9/11 happened in the USA, there was actionable intelligence in USA that Iraq has WMD’s, George W. Bush ordered a strike on Iraq, the brothers in arms of Saddam Hussein were killed, he himself was captured and hanged, thousands of civilians died, the entire country was brought to its knees, no WMD’s was found, cost of war was discovered from oil reserves in Iraq. Now, there is a genuine attempt to bring democracy back in Iraq and withdraw the US troops from the region. What will the democracy run on if their post priced natural resource is not under their direct control ? It worked for US, I must admit. There has been no act of terrorism in US since 9/11. When it comes to dealing with terror their policy is very agressive, irrespective of what the rest of the world thinks. 

The remaining Al Qaeda members in Iraq escaped to Afghanistan via Iran to join forces with Taliban. The Taliban was initially formed by the west to defeat Soviets who were after the oil rich Persian gulf . Following the removal of the Soviet occupation, the US and its allies lost interest in Afghanistan. Bad move. This caused chaos in Afghanistan and a civil war broke out between the Afgan Army and the Taliban. In the mid 90’s the Taliban became a strong religious force that occupied almost all of Afghanistan.

The Pakistan army and ISI collaborated with the Taliban to train groups like LeT etc to free Kashmir from India. Enormously funded by China who wanted to keep India busy on its west border, so that they can operate on the north east border of India to capture its land. Taliban and LeT has fought along side the Pakistan during the Kargil war that was a result of infiltration from Pakistan. These groups have constantly carried out terrorist activities in India. Mumbai 26/11 being the latest.

In between all this, with the Taliban and Al Qaeda threat still looming at large on the US, George W. Bush made friends with Pakistan President and dictator Parvez Musharraf to provide an estimated 10 Billion USD aid per annum to train their Army and fight the Taliban on the north west border with Afghanistan. Brutal move for everyone. Taliban could not tolerate Pakistan helping USA and increased their infiltration in Pakistan and carried out in-numerous terrorist events inside the main cities in Pakistan. Pakistan army which basically controls the country used a lot of this aid to make themselves strong on their east coast with India and setup all these militant camps in PoK. Their number priority has always been Kashmir and that’s all they really care about. This created more problems for India as these infiltrations inside Kashmir brought the countries to a brink of war and elevated the separatist movement in Kashmir that demands for free Kashmir. 

Pakistan spun out of control.  On one side the angry Talibans and on the other side pressure from India, and inside a divided opinion between the extremist and liberals. Finally, after not getting the desired results from Pakistan, US decided to move themselves into the north west frontier of Pakistan to carry out attacks on Taliban. Pakistan had already broad-casted themselves as being US allies against war on terror and with all the aid they receive, were in no position to turn down US instructions to move in troops in their own country. Currently US troops and other NATO forces are carrying out missile operations inside Pakistan that has created a rogue against their own government by opposition and the general public.

Pakistan are currently also dealing with the Mumbai 26/11 dossier that India has provided and face extreme pressure from International community to act on the same swiftly. Jamat-ut-dawa, the front end of LeT, an organization that carried out attacks in Mumbai has already been banned in Pakistan. The new US administration has minced no words in categorically stating that they will keep striking inside Pakistan if they have actionable intelligence. An absolute mess, I must confess. Pakistan are to blame themselves for it for taking the aid from US at the first place. I guess it was too much money to let go. 

This instability in Pakistan is unnerving for New Delhi, and rightly so. No one knows who controls the nukes inside Pakistan. Under pressure or in case of capture by Talibans, anything can happen. A nuke missile maybe heading towards New Delhi in time to come if the civil war situation inside Pakistan does not end. Also, when the Govt. in Pakistan is not in control, India does not know who to talk to? Gilanni and Zardari are pretty much controlled by ISI and Pakistan army, in spite of their good intentions, they are of no good to the world.

India has created problems for itself too. By running to the International comunity with proof against Pakistan in case of all terrorist attacks, it has attracted flak from Pakistan. Pakistan has questioned India’s hypocrisy when it comes to dealing with UN. When it comes to Kashmir, India wants to keep UN completely out of it but when it comes to terrorist acts, India wants the help of UN. I don’t blame Pakistan for it. No matter how invalid Pakistan’s case may be with respect to Kashmir, there is a visibly inconsistency from New Delhi. 

Also, Rajeev Gandhi, the late Indian Prime Minister funded the organization Tamil Tigers (known as LTTE) to capture a part of Sri Lankan and create a seperate Tamil state. Sri Lanka has lived all these years fighting the Tamil Tigers in their own land due to massive infiltration from LTTE. As I write this, the Sri Lankan army is killing the Tamil Tigers headed by Prabhakaran. AIMDK leader, Jaylalithaa, in Tamil Nadu has condemned the killing of Tamils Tigers and forced Indian foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee to travel to Sri Lanka and sort out the issue. I would imagine that Sri Lanka has complete right to destroy this infiltration in their country. India has banned LTTE many years ago.

China is sitting pretty themselves but are party to a lot of crime in this region. They stay friends with Pakistan and supply them plenty of intelligence and weaponry to keep India busy on the west, as I stated earlier. In addition they work closely on the North east border states in India by flooding them with ideologies that they should really demand for a separate country from India. The communist spread in east of India, most notebally in West Bengal has created political parties in India like the Left front. These parties are funded from China and their job is to get elected by hook or crook and then do as China says inside the Indian parliament. The left basically projects themselves as a party that works for the common man in India, but the harsh fact is that they are against every progressive act in India, as directed by China. Their opposition to the Nuke deal between India and US is a recent example of their threat to the progress of India.

In conclusion, all of these countries are responsible towards the mess that exists in this region. I blame the US, India, Pakistan, China, Iraq, USSR, UK and just about everyone. And when everyone is to be blamed, there is no point in blaming one more than the other. Everyone is party to this crime. It is time for a new world order, for leaders who can rise and fix the mess in their own countries. Idealistic, unreal and impossible as it may sound, I see no other way out of this mess.