The brazen face of terror: Faceless enemy

Though well-entrenched and adequately funded, the fundamentalist terrorist machine can be contained, says BHARAT VERMA.

THE fulcrum of the pan-Islamic terrorism against Kafirs is located in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Jehad Factory run by the Taliban and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan recruits volunteers from all Islamic nations and Muslim populations settled in the West.

The financial contributions to run this Islamic Army of Terror are primarily received from three sources. First, worldwide donations from individuals. Second, an annual estimated income of $12 billion that accrues from the narcotics and drugs trade to Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the single critical factor, which has disallowed the collapse of Pakistan's wobbling economy so far. Third, Saudi oil money provides a major subsidy.

Jehad contradicts the sovereignty based on defined territoriality of a nation state. It is an interventionist ideology that divides the world between Dar-ul-Islam (Muslim majority) and Dar-ul-Harb (non-Muslim majority area to be converted to Muslim majority).

Footloose and faceless, Jehad warriors trained by the Afghanistan-Pakistan combine and supported by fundamentalist Islamic regimes have radiated outwards to Kashmir, Chechnya, Dagestan, Bosnia and Xinjiang. The terrorist machine enjoys extensive and well-entrenched networks in the subcontinent, West Asia, Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, the European Union and North America. Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda (the base) boasts of Pakistanis, Saudis, Egyptians, Yemenis, Jordanians, Iraqis and Palestinians. Laden and his organisation form the spine of The International Islamic Front which swears by destruction of three countries, i.e., the United States, Israel and India. Though not necessarily in that order.

In India, the agenda is not limited to Kashmir, which the front wants to carve out as an Islamic state run on Wahabi philosophy from Islamabad, but extends to West Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and portions of South India. If the modus operandi in the Kashmir Valley is based on ethnic cleansing, a demographic alteration through creeping invasion is the happening strategy in other parts of India. Subsequently using Assam as the launching pad, the anti-kafirs movement will crawl towards the other States of the Northeast just as it presently attempts to sneak in from Kargil to less populated areas of Leh and Ladakh. Emboldened by victory against the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan, the Jehad machine is convinced that it has a low cost win-win weapon. Therefore, its ambitions stand enlarged with two-fold politico- military objectives. First, it wants to dominate the political space in the subcontinent. Second, the aim of this pan -Islamic movement is to capture resource-rich Central Asia through the spread of Jehad beyond Afghanistan.

Terrorism betrays no physical contours nor presents a face against which conventional military superiority can hit and prevail. This Army of Terror indulges in a shadow war without laid out or structured military bases, a regular government or a defined territory. Therefore, it retains the highest level of element of surprise vis-a-vis the regular forces. The victims are likely to learn of (where, when and how) the destruction caused by a free-floating terrorist outfit after the incident alone. A nation or its military-cum-intelligence machine can brainstorm and prepare for a hundred different threat scenarios, but invariably terrorism will strike with the hundred and first variation as the Americans learnt to their cost on a brutal Tuesday.

Fight the terrorist like a terrorist

To win the war against terrorism, America will need to judiciously combine its technological prowess and military superiority with countries that have experienced and trained manpower in low intensity conflict. Operationally, this is a manpower intensive task as human intelligence (HUMINT) will deliver more for the buck than mere satellite imagery. Similarly, to prevail upon the enemy, special forces will need to fight the terrorist like a terrorist. This again calls for deployment of large human resources scarce in the U.S.. The capture of Osama the individual may provide good sound bites but the danger comes from Osama bin Laden as a motivation to thousands of Islamic terrorists. The direction of war waged should aim to deconstruct this lethal mindset.

The countries that can assist America are India and Russia, the latter for the influence it commands and intelligence operations it can conduct. China will neither interfere nor extend help due to close links with Pakistan and the Taliban. However, the key to this war remains in thinking like a (or ahead of the) terrorist. Infiltrating his networks, denying fuel and food supplies, causing rifts, creating suspicions between groups, extending support to dissent, disrupting communications, by taking the war into the enemy heartland and inflicting destruction which raises the cost and launching of the psychological warfare.

American action in the aftermath of September 11 is a recent example of the conduct of psywar. While the U.S. marshals its resources, it has, through calibrated statements, put on notice the Islamic fundamentalist outfits. Even before "Noble Eagle" is operative, relationships between Afghanistan and Pakistan stand ruptured and the groundswell against the Musharaff regime is snowballing into a fireball. The enemy is in disarray.

It is difficult for America and its allies to simultaneously focus military-cum-intelligence attention to demolish the large terrorist network girdling the globe at one go. The counter strategy, therefore, ought to hinge on going for the jugular. Destruction of the Jehad Factory in our backyard will effect a setback by at least 25 years.

Hence America and its allies should carry out clean surgical air strikes over Afghanistan and induct troops to occupy strategic high ground. Dismantle the terrorist networks and install a liberal regime like the Northern Alliance. De-induct the ground forces at an appropriate time. Bring to justice terrorists from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Security implications for India in the evolving matrix are no worse or better than they were earlier. However, if New Delhi can stiffen its political spine, put its military muscle where the mouth is and activate a counter proxy war policy, it can succeed in developing a strategic corridor to resource rich Central Asia.

Conversely, a nation that does not dare to wage a ruthless war against terrorism can never win.

The writer is Editor, Indian Defence Review

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