Blaming Blackwater: Pakistan Awash in Conspiracy Theories
On Friday morning, I was working on an article about Pakistani conspiracy theories — how popular they are becoming and how dangerous they are — when news came over the wire of yet another massacre at a Pakistani mosque. During morning prayers, terrorists in Rawalpindi stormed into a place of worship frequented by military officials. Using machine guns, grenades, and IEDs, they killed at least 37 people — including 17 children.
Killing people while they are praying is a horrific and barbaric act. And yet in Pakistan this is a common, almost monthly occurrence.
Bill Roggio of The Long War Journal has been keeping track of major attacks at mosques, religious events, and Islamic institutions in Pakistan. In the past 24 months, there have been 19 such events, which have resulted in more than 400 dead worshipers and hundreds more wounded.
Here are just a few examples of the death and destruction, all from Roggio’s painstakingly chronicled list:
Oct. 20, 2009: A pair of suicide bombers detonated their vests at Islamabad’s International Islamic University, killing five.
June 5, 2009: A suicide bomber killed 49 worshipers in an attack on a mosque in a remote village in Dir.
March 27, 2009: A Taliban suicide bomber killed more than 70 worshipers and wounded more than 125 in an attack at a mosque in the Khyber tribal agency.
Sept. 10, 2008: The Taliban attacked a mosque filled with Ramadan worshipers in the district of Dir in northwestern Pakistan. More than 25 worshipers were killed and more than 50 were wounded.
Aug. 19, 2008: A suicide bomber killed 29 Shia mourners and wounded 35 after detonating in the emergency ward of a hospital. Most of those killed were family members visiting the body of a man murdered by the Taliban in a bazaar earlier that day.
The emerging details of the newest mosque massacre, coupled with equally bloody details from the 18 previous attacks, make the original thesis of my article — how average Pakistani civilians are becoming boondoggled by conspiracy theory thinking — all the more troublesome.
The sooner this nation understands that the people in that part of the world are not the same as we are the better. We have this ethnocentric view that thinks we can change the politics of a nation. No amount of money and propped up leaders can change the culture of death in that region. 103 dead in Iraq from suicide bombings in this mornings news. Our abiliy to not see a people for what they truly are is a center of the universe attitude that goes all the way back to our ancestors in Europe. If we are there to fight a war than fight a war.
Hard not to read almost anything about Pakistan and not think “ok, enough already – just f-cking nuke it.”
Actually I have to disagree with #1 and state that it is the exact opposite, it is our new view of multiculturalism that dives us to believe that “everyone is just as good as us and like us”. The old Europeans and early Americans believed in the primacy of their culture and religion. Hence the Native Americans treated as savages, Africans enslaved, and colonial empires.
We now live with crap like “white guilt” and “political correctness” because of it. You can’t criticize anyone based upon their behavior and evidence because its “racist”.
I find it interetsing that this article shows up here the day after this:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Is-Headley-an-American-agent-who-turned-rogue/articleshow/5273422.cms
Convincing evidence that David Headley, the American currently under investigation for participating in the Mumbai attacks, was rogue US agent/informer. One of the bloggers at PJM, Rusty Shackleford, was all over this story when it was useful to imply that American muslims were engaged in world-wide jihad. I suppose its less interesting when the evidence is instead leading to the fact that he was a US asset, and that the US seems unable to prevent these from playing them on both sides.
Almost all of these theories involve the idea that the U.S. and India are engaged in a global conspiracy to destroy Pakistan
Well, thank goodness the shape-shifting Jewish space lizards weren’t involved this time!
Somebody better invent Force Fields pretty soon. We need to completely isolate these countries!
How to you convince stupid? Look at the conspiracy factions in this country. When the tsunami hit Indonesia there were those who strongly believed the US engineered that event. Almost immediately after the Ft. Hood shootings there were reports of a second shooter. But not to worry, we always have the media who will enthusiastically do it part to keep these theories alive.
Ms Jacobsen,
Good to see interest. But perhaps you can do some more research, this is pretty thin. Some links, quotes, comments to get you started:
http://catastrophist.wordpress.com/category/pakistanafghanistan/
Regards, TC
Vech;
The tsunami theory was published in an EGYPTIAN newspaper by a “scientist”. Israel was also implicated.
It was published in a part of the world most likely to believe such nonsense and least likely to be educated in the hard sciences.
Try again …
Saw this on Drudge “NYT: Details of work carried out by Blackwater against suspected insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan… Developing…”
Now, isn’t that an interesting coinkydinky?
And on the USA Front…
5 Pakistani-Americans (contradiction?) realize that Allah doesnt
tolerate divided allegiances and are arrested in Pakistan
trying to kill Americans
KEEP ISLAM OUT OF THE USA.