Imperial spins and our media
Regular US drone strikes are back, killing people on Pakistani territory. The mother of all terrorists says it is targeting the terrorists but by now we should be wise enough to know that she’s up to something else. At a time when the Pak Armed Forces are successfully eliminating terrorists from the very area being droned, what axe is the meddlesome superpower trying to grind? Is it leveling the ground for introducing its new and deadlier ISIS offspring into Pakistan via Afghanistan?
It is common knowledge that, for decades, the US and its royal Arab proxies have spawned and nurtured ‘Islamic’ terrorists, unleashing them for regime change and for fomenting chaos in countries targeted by this ruthless axis. This is recognized even in the corridors of imperial power and by its big media mouthpieces. After all, there’s too much evidence to deny that proliferation of terrorist outfits is a persistent policy of the empire. Therefore, the need for spins and distractions.
We are told stories about out-of-control frankensteins that the brave savior of humanity must battle and bring down. Without answering questions about why it continues to manufacture one Frankenstein after another, the US would like the world to join its war against the brand-new monster it has spawned. Before people process the lies about previous wars, they must be hurled into the next one. And the next before they catch their breath. Those not joining its self-created wars are expected to at least cheer from the sidelines as the dying superpower adds countries to its bombing list.
Isn’t it strange that after having to bring down so many frankensteins, starting from Osama Bin Laden and Taliban to Al Nusra and ISIS, the US still thinks it is a good idea to spawn some more. Now it is the so-called moderate militants that the US would like to fund and train to take on the Assad regime in Syria. I’m not quoting a CIA classified document but a bill worth half a billion dollars passed by the US Congress. Yes, it is that blatant.
Groomed and funded by the empire, the ‘Islamic’ terrorist outfits are no out-of-control frankensteins. Commanders and warlords are played as pieces on the imperial chessboard. They are the tools, the loyal dogs of the empire and its royal Arab subjects that feed them. As long as they abide by the master’s command, they’d receive the cash, the gadgets, the arms and, if they need it, air-cover to claim territory. Those being bombed are either innocent people mowed down to create space for a fresh horde of militants. Or they are militants that, for an assortment of reasons, no longer fall in line with the imperial script.
The imperial narrative on ‘Islamic’ terrorism is rather flimsy despite the sectarian frills and regional power-plays with which it would like to embellish it. At the end of the day, everything feeds into the imperial agenda, advancing the empire’s murderous plans and greedy interests. As it spawns and attacks terrorists, it spreads a vacuum of order to be filled by its trained agents of chaos and violence. The second bird it kills with the same stone of ‘Islamic’ terrorists is to show an ugly face labeled as Islam and hence feed Islamophobia.
The mainstream western media doesn’t ask the hard questions and happily ride the war-making bandwagon. The so-called giants of western journalism beat the empire’s chosen drum and gloss over glaring inconsistencies and outright lies. And since our own independent media considers it a sin to diversify its news sources, it faithfully reproduces the imperial narrative as propagated by the shining lights of western journalism verbatim. The discussion goes round and round within the same faulty framework.
Is it because of an inferiority complex or is it laziness? After all, the alternative news sources don’t need to be built from scratch. They are already there and just need to be tapped into. Russia’s RT, Iran’s PressTV, Venezuela’s TeleSur, Central Asia Online, even China’s bland Xinhua, provide alternative perspectives that are surely more credible than the loud and coordinated campaigning of CNN, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post and what not. The alternative sources might not be perfect and suffer from their own biases, but they provide an opportunity to put together a balanced and well-rounded perspective.
Strangely, our media buys the imperial narrative hook, line and sinker. All of our media organizations without exception reproduce what the mouthpieces of the empire say, uncritically and ever so faithfully; the dubious leaks, crafty spins and timely distractions, complete with their inherent biases and propagandist agenda. So, everything about the ISIS we learn from Pakistani media comes from the mouthpieces of the empire that created it. Even when we talk about the issue of terrorism within our own country, we quote the same imperial sources and news agencies. They define the framework of not only the discussion but also the reporting on the ground by correspondents of Pakistani media outlets.
Is it any wonder then, that the NGOs peddling human rights which started whimpering about collateral damage in the face of Zarb-e-Azb never talk about innocents killed in drone attacks? The same media that is quick to target the military establishment and the ISI for hatching all sorts of conspiracies is mum about the imperial master pulling the strings of ‘Islamic’ terrorists around the globe? Our government ministers and democracy-loving parliamentarians are eager to malign the military leadership but refuse to take a strong stance on US drones bombing Pakistani territory?
It is obvious that an unscrupulous barbaric empire is systematically spawning ‘Islamic’ terrorists and using them as an excuse to bomb and invade countries. In our case, it is also obvious that, being the only bulwark against the barbaric hordes, the military is a hurdle in the imperial plans and there is a well-orchestrated smear campaign against the institution. While they happily lap up every negative rumor about the military, our opinion leaders in the media and the parliament are mum about the frankensteins of the empire. The hold of the imperial narrative on them seems to be complete.
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