A Despotic Fight

A Pakistani Despot

On the 3rd of November 2007, president Pervez Musharraf suspended the Constitution and took absolute military control of the state. He claims to have done this due to a state of national emergency. This sounds like a reasonable step. It is understandable that a state might have to limit certain rights of the people during an emergency situation. There are many countries that have provisions for just such a situation. Yet in this instance we must examine the situation more closely. Declaring a state of emergency is something that politicians can use as a political ploy to achieve some of their own goals that could not otherwise be resolved to their satisfaction.

A State of Emergency

It is perfectly understandable that a government might suspend certain constitutional rights in a state of emergency. One would expect the country to cooperate with the situation until the emergency resolves. In Pakistan, this particular state of emergency has seemingly required surrounding the judicial court with armed guards and forcing them to disband. This would seem to indicate that the Pakistani emergency is very real but has nothing to do with any outside threat that could harm its people. Rather, it would seem to indicate that the danger lies in the government itself and nowhere else. I am quite certain that the judges of the Supreme Court are not military insurgents who are armed to the teeth and pose a real security risk to Pakistan. In a similar sense, the various radio broadcast stations are not threatening immediate destruction. Rather, the emergency switch to despotism is the real emergency in Pakistan and requires immediate action.

A Mask of Terror

The Al Qaeda Mask

The long trial of the Madrid train bombers has finally been concluded. The court took quite a time at reaching a verdict due to the incredible amount of conspiracy theories that had to be addressed. While this may be the sadly inevitable situation surrounding such catastrophes, it is obvious that these conspiracies are (for the most part) the far fetched sort of things that the public loves to thrive on but have no real connection with reality. It is true that the ETA claimed responsibility initially but the people convicted admitted that they really had no connection. The ETA has also admitted that it was not connected. The only conclusion regarding the terrorist cell was that they were "Al Qaeda Inspired". That means that they were not recruited by Al Qaeda, were not trained by Al Qaeda and did not act on Al Qaeda orders. Why then are they related to Al Qaeda? What is hiding behind the Al Qaeda mask?

Behind the Mask

I do not really know what hides behind the Al Qaeda mask. It is certainly not some misplaced terrorist ideals. Perhaps the internal Spanish politics require that a mask of some sort adorn this horrid terrorist act so that someone bears the blame. Perhaps there are people who find that labelling their sheer acts of vile evil with a name of some sort gives them more legitimacy and that is what the Al Qaeda mask provides. If that is the case then this is another example that demonstrates how masks such as these are those which allow terrorism to continue to exist. Abolish the mask and you abolish terrorism.