[p2p-research] DEFEATING THE TALIBAN:

[Michel Bauwens]

worth reading, though outside a p2p scope,

Michel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sohail Inayatullah <s.inayatullah at qut.edu.au>
Date: Jun 6, 2009 2:09 PM
Subject: Hi Michel/Jose ....thanks for the links and discussion ...here is
my new piece ...
To: jose ramos <actionforesight at gmail.com>, Michel Bauwens <
michelsub2004 at gmail.com>


DEFEATING THE TALIBAN:
ONE JOKE AT A TIME

Sohail Inayatullah
Professor, Tamkang University, Taiwan and the University of the Sunshine
Coast, Australia. Inayatullah is a member of the Council of Social Sciences,
Pakistan. www.metafuture.org [1]


THROWING SHOES AT THE PRESIDENT

While there were many reasons for the Republican loss in the 2008 election,
one reason was the ridicule poured on former President George Bush. Whether
by Jon Stewart's The Daily Show[2] or Will Ferrell [3]  impersonations, few
could see Bush in any serious light. He had become a comic figure, even
tragic, such that a journalist in Iraq could consider throwing his shoe at
him. The story of "most powerful person on the planet" had been transformed
into "inept leader."

In the May issue of *Time Magazine*, Michael Grunwald reflects on the future
of the Republican Party and asks, "Is the party over?"[4] Who can take them
seriously, he argues, when some of their leaders believe the Earth is
cooling. The mockery began, argues Grunwald, when GOP leaders, to counter
President Obama's figures, released their own budget figures. Unfortunately,
they did not provide any numbers, data, in their budget.

While the Republican Party may rebound if the Democrats overreach
themselves, fail miserably in Pakistan and Afghanistan and if the recession
becomes system[5] threatening, right now the terms of the policy debate are
being discussed within Democrats' terms. They are defining the agenda.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd used this approach to unseat John
Howard. Instead of debating policy, which he understood would turn the
Australian public off – seeing labour as overly intellectual -  he focused
on constructing Howard as out of touch, and indeed dangerous for Australia's
future. When asked about Howard, Rudd remarked, "He used to be captain
average, now he is just an extremist." The damage was done and then Rudd
could move to a serious discussion of policy differences. But first he had
to reframe the debate.

TALIBANIZATION

Far, far away from Washington and Canberra in another land, the opposite is
occurring. It is the Pakistan government that is mocked, the President Asif
Zardari still seen by many as Mr. 10% and by most as a lackey of the
Americans, Barak Hussain Obama notwithstanding.

Pakistanis do not wish to fight their own; they especially do not wish to
fight fellow Muslims.[6] The Taliban, many believe, are pure, virtuous,
fighting the good fight. And when evidence to the contrary is given, most
Pakistanis assume the ubiquitous foreign hand theory. It must be the
Indians. We are innocent, they seek to destabilize us. The basic tenet of
social science – correlation is not causation – is forgotten; perhaps never
even learned. Moreover, the strategic discourse – seeing all reality as
conspiracy based …hidden motives, agents, and governments secretly trying to
defeat each other – dominates. Acting in ways to lead to a better society,
better health outcomes, increased prosperity, greater community, are
mirages. South Asian history from the Aryan invasion to Partition has been
brutal. Thus, it must be them. It cannot be us. Given that we need to ensure
that there are more of "us" then "them," even if the 'us" includes the
barbarism of the Taliban.

Creating change in a cynical population will not just result from financial
promises, since that is what citizens believe governments do to placate them
– promise money. And if the money – schools, roads and water projects – is
delivered, more money continues to create a feudal dependency relationship,
instead of feudal lord it is now the Islamabad government – a classic
child/parent bonding pattern (earlier it was the British). Dependency
relationships do not create long term economic development, innovation, and
certainly not enhanced equity.

Fighting and defeating the Taliban militarily is unlikely as well. They are
not trained in classical war – military formations in a land war with clear
command control vis a vis governmental hierarchy and bureaucracy with the
goal of holding territory. Rather, their training is in guerilla tactics.
Moreover, along with Al-Qaeda, they lead globally in organizational
innovation. Their organizational structure is more viral and mobile then
fixed. By being peer-to-peer focused with some degree of command control
they can quickly morph, being highly agile and flexible. They also have
ideology on their side believing that they are destined to win. Finally,
they are fighting in their own territory.

Sri Lanka's recent military success in defeating the LTTE should not be
considered as a hopeful sign for Pakistan. Sri Lanka succeeded because the
Tamils had nowhere to hide. The Taliban can hide in Afghanistan and
Pakistan, in mountains and households. Certainly Bin Laden and Ayman
Al-Zawahiri know how easy it is to disappear. And Sri Lanka did not have to
worry about civilian casualties whereas Pakistan and NATO must be concerned
about every civilian death.[7] Finally, the Tigers lost as they moved from
being a guerilla army to a conventional nation-state holding land. The
Taliban (here including Al-Qaeda) are unlikely to be able to hold any
territory, but they are able to hold Pakistan, and indeed the entire world
at ransom.

ASABIYA

Ibn Khaldun, [8]14th century founder of sociology, wrote that it is *asabiya
* or unity gained through struggle that forms the glue of long term
successful governance. Away from the corrupt cities, the Bedouins toil in
the desert or mountains fighting the harsh elements. This struggle creates
an ideological community, a profound solidarity. They become brothers in the
war. And religion adds the final aspect to asabiya. [9] They become an
unstoppable force, knocking at the doors of civilization, unable to build
but certainly able to destroy.

With asabiya on the side of the Taliban, what hope does NATO have of
defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan or in Pakistan?

And yet this is what they said about General/President Zia-ul Haq, that he
would rule forever. He governed Pakistan with an iron fist, was the true
father of the Mujahideen that fought and defeated the Russians, of which the
Taliban are the bastard children (and like all the ignored, they desperately
seek attention).[10] Most believed the General would last forever. Yet there
was one writer, Syed Abidi,[11] who argued that one way to judge if a regime
is about to fall is to listen and observe how the masses talk about their
leaders. He argued that ridicule was one indicator that a regime was on its
way out. Before Zia's death in a mysterious plane crash, Abidi in his field
work recounts the following jokes.[12]

            In the first, the President Zia is in Paris for a conference
where he sees a Pakistani women dressed in Parisian attire. He asks one of
his men to tell her that the President wants to see her. At the hotel, the
President invites her to his room where he chastises her for wearing foreign
clothes. He tells her to take off her french coat.  She does. "As a Muslim
woman, how dare you wear a skirt. Take it off," he says.  She does. "Don't
you know about Islamization in Pakistan, how you dare wear such frilly
underclothes. Take them off." She does and stands there naked in front of
the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. "Now come embrace Islam,"
he says with his arms outstretched.

Clearly the alleged purity of President Zia-ul Haq was being questioned. The
citizenry understood that he was buttressing the Islamic right wing so that
he could stay in power …[13]

In another telling popular joke from the 1980s, both the Ayatollah Khomeini
and General Zia have an audience with Allah, each being allowed one
question. Khomeini asks if the Islamic revolution in Iran will be
successful. "Not in your lifetime,' responds Allah."And in Pakistan," asks
General Zia. "Not in My lifetime," says Allah.

Everyone knew General Zia's Islam was sham, a strategy. Not so with the
Taliban. They appear to be above mockery.  Perhaps it is time to use humor
to dislodge their claim to purity, their claim to be God's warriors. Richard
Holbrooke commented in early May that beyond killing there was an important
battle of communication. As he says:  "The Taliban have unrestricted,
unchallenged access to the radio which is the main means of communication in
an area where literacy is around 10 percent for men and less than five
percent for women." [14]

Holbrooke has wisely asked for funding to counter Taliban communication
supremacy. But what should be broadcast?

The answer to this comes from Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner in
their *Freakonomics:
A rogue economist explores the hidden side to everything*.[15] Levittt and
Dubner demonstrate how mockery became the decisive tool in defeating the
rise of KKK after World War II. Intending to defeat bigotry, one citizen,
Stetson Kennedy, decided that he could de-legitimize the KKK. It was
exposure to the Klan at an early age that helped him make his ideological
decision. His family's maid, "who had pretty much raised Stetson, was tied
to a tree, beaten, and raped by a gang of Klansmen. Her offense: talking
back to a white trolley driver who had short-changed her."

This is a lesson the Taliban have learned well in South Asia – do not
tolerate any challenge to authority especially by females. Stetson
infiltrated the Klan and learned their success. First lynching worked, as
this threat kept the black population in fear. The Taliban have used a
similar strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, most recently in Swat. Once
Stetson had figured out the culture of the Klan – codewords, rules,
acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, he embarked on a mission to expose
them. He first tried to expose their financial base. Then he would tip off
leaders of Klan activities. But ultimately, Stetson, writes Levitt and
Dubner, felt as if these were merely throwing pebbles at a giant. Finally a
new idea came to him, he chanced upon the Superman radio show …he passed on
all his secret information (on handshakes, what they called the Klan Bible –
the Kloran, interestingly enough) to the producers, who had Superman take on
the Klan.

Writes Levitt:

One Klan member coming home from a meeting saw his young kids playing in the
street.When he asked them what they were doing, he said they were playing a
new type of game, like cops and robbers but called, Superman against the
Klan. He said: they knew all our secret passwords and everything …I never
felt so ridiculous in all my life. Historians now consider the work of
Kennedy as the "single most important factor in preventing a postwar revival
of the KKK in the North. (65)

Unfortunately, while having some short-term military success, current
NATO/American tactics of using drones to kill Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders
positions Americans as cowards.  Write Bobby Ghosh and  Mark Thompson in
their article, "The CIA's silent war in Pakistan":[16]

Ordinary Pakistanis …remain unconvinced that the campaign [using drones]
serves Pakistan's interests. The drones feature in anti-US and anti-Zardari
graffiti and cartoons, and are the punch line of popular jokes about
American impotence or cowardice: Asked why she's ditching her US boyfriend,
a Pakistani woman says, "He shoots his missile from 30,000 ft."

THE WAY FORWARD

While humor, mockery must be a central tenet of any long term strategy
against the Taliban, the way forward in Pakistan and Afghanistan is, of
course, multiple.

First, protect those who are willing to stand up to the Taliban.

Second, turn those who are killed, such as the journalist Mosa Khankhel of
Geo TV, into heroes.[17]

Third, develop radio shows, TV shows, cartoons that show the Taliban not as
courageous heroes fighting for the nation, but as those bankrupting the
nation, driving away investment, taking away jobs, removing the ability of
women and children to learn – driving Pakistan into poverty just as the same
time India rises to world stature. "Does Pakistan wish to be the beggar,
while India becomes the feudal lord," is the scenario that needs to be told.

Fourth, over time once this has worked, then one can show their atrocities.
Says Supreme Court Advocate, Aitzaz Ahsan, "the whole nation needs to see …
the floggings, the digging up of the graves of our saints, the burning of
our girls' schools."[18]  However, if images of their atrocities are shown
first, then cognitive dissonance will result, and the population will see it
as Pakistan government, American or Indian propaganda.

Fifth, create an understanding of social science,[19] that is, challenge the
world of conspiracy theories with basic knowledge of causality, validity,
and reliability but, more importantly, go to a root understanding of
conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories are created by the powerless, those
who feel overwhelmed by processes they cannot understand, that they do not
have the tools to understand.

Sixth, continue to support democracy but not just at political levels but
economic levels too – micro credit, cooperatives, for example. Remember: it
is illiteracy and unmet expectations (poverty in one area, incredible wealth
in another) that create the recruiting grounds for the Taliban.

Seventh, frame the debate within the terms of the syncretism of Pakistani
Islam. Currently, the Taliban and other extremists create the framework;
they use their myths and metaphors to define reality.[20] As physicist
Pervez Hoodbhoy, argues, "Many fear that to be seen to protesting against
the extremists would be seen as protesting against Islam."[21] As long as
the Taliban control the framework, other measures will fail since Pakistanis
do not wish to fight against muslims. Within the conspiracy framework, the
Taliban need to be constructed as outsiders. But over time, this will not
work since the self-other division leads to long lasting problems of
identity. Other frameworks are required. Currently, the strategy is to see
them as anti-national. This may be enough but most likely language from
Islamic history will be required. Stories of other Islamic groups who
stopped the rise of Islam through extremism need to be told. And: the state
needs to show and demonstrate that it is pro-Islam, pro-Pakistan,
anti-Taliban and neutral towards the West.

Eighth, military action should be, and this is crucial, led by a female
general. There is considerable Islamic history that tells the stories of
valour of women. Fatima Mernissi's *The Forgotten Queens of Islam* [22]stands
out. Mernissi starts with Benazir Bhutto and then goes backward in time
telling us of the heroism of, for example, Sultana Radiyya (Delhi, 1236) and
of Shajarat al-Durr (Egypt, 1251). More recently there was Malalai, an
Afghan woman who led soldiers into battle in the second Anglo-Afghan war.[23]
An all-women's army would be better, but that is unlikely. In either case, a
woman general would challenge at a profound level the Taliban's disowning of
gender. And every skirmish, battle won, would dishonor the Taliban amongst
the other tribes. They would not be able to epistemologically survive. Once
epistemology is challenged then ontology is easy.

ONE JOKE, ONE FRAME AT A TIME

The Taliban will disappear when they have been de-legitimized.[24] This will
not happen through war but by reframing this battle, taking back the terms
of the debate, moving from extremist to syncretic Islam. Humor can be an
outstanding strategy in communicating that the Taliban's vision of the
future is not in the interests of 99% of Pakistanis and the world. Being
mocked is what the Taliban are deathly afraid of (not death). As religious
warriors they wish to be respected, seen as strong and as virtuous, brave in
the face of every obstacle. They are not. A new story has to be told.[25]





[1] I wish to thank Susan Deckhard and Dr. Patricia Kelly for editorial
assistance.
[2] http://www.thedailyshow.com/. Accessed May 22, 2009
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOjfxEejS2Y. Accessed May 22, 2009.
[4] Michael Grunwald, "Is the Party Over?," *Time *(18 May 2009), 18-23.
[5] As in the world capitalist system.
[6] Indeed, food, housing, education, peace and dignity  are far more
important. Ultimately, it is not about victory and defeat but about creating
a better society, a deep rooted culture of peace and inclusion.
[7] NATO answers to its constituent governments and the citizens who elect
them not to mention the world press. Pakistan must answers to its citizens.
Collateral damage only convinces most Pakistanis that this is not their
fight but an American and European issue.
[8] Ibn Khaldun, *The Muqaddimah*. trans. Franz Rosenthal. N.J. Dawood, ed.
New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1967.
[9] Johan Galtung and Sohail Inayatullah, *Macrohistory and Macrohistorians*.
Westport, CT, Praeger, 1987. See Section 2, Sohail Inayatullah, Ibn Khaldun.
[10] A Jungian reading is obvious. Al-Qaeda and Taliban are the disowned
selves of the modernists. As they sought to shed religious history and join
the linearity of secular progress, leaving behind religion, the disowned has
come back, as it tends to, in pathological forms. For more on this, see Hal
and Sidra Stone, *Embracing Our Selves*. Novato, California, New World,
1989.
[11] Syed Abidi, "Social Change and the Politics of Religion in Pakistan."
Honolulu, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Hawaii, Department of
Political Science, 1988.
[12] Sohail Inayatullah, “Mullahs, Sex, and Bureaucrats: Pakistan’s
Confrontations with the Modern World,” in Deepika Petraglia-Bahri and Mary
Vasudeva, eds., *Between the Lines: South Asians In/On Postcoloniality*.
Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1996, 125.
[13] Syed Abidi, "Social Change and the Politics of Religion in Pakistan."
Honolulu, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Hawaii, Department of
Political Science, 1988.
[14] Paul Eckert, "Information war key to USA Pakistan strategy:
envoy."http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090512/pl_nm/us_pakistan_usa_envoy_1.
Accessed
May 13<http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090512/pl_nm/us_pakistan_usa_envoy_1.%20Accessed%20May%2013>,
2009.
[15] Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, *Freakonomics: A rogue economist
explores the hidden side to everything*. London, Alan Lane, 2005.
[16] Bobby Ghosh and Mark Thompson, "The CIA's silent war in Pakistan," *Time
*(1 June 2009), 22. Not to mention the jihadi recruits the Taliban gains
from every strike gone wrong.
[17] Zein Bazrawi, "Journalist killed in Taliban Region."
www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/18/pakistan.journalist/index.html?eref=time_world.
Accessed May 20, 2009.
[18] Aryn Baker, "The Nation that Failed itself," *Time* (25 May 2009), 17.
[19] See the Council of Social Sciences in Pakistan. http://cosspak.org/.
Accessed 23 May 2009.
[20] For this approach to strategy, see Sohail Inayatullah, ed., *The Causal
layered Analysis Reader. An Integrative and Transformative Method*. Tamkang
University Press, Tamsui, Taiwan, 2004. and:
http://www.metafuture.org/causal-layered-analysis-papers.html. For a similar
approach, see George Lakoff, *Don't Think of an Elephant*. Melbourne,
Scribe, 2004.
[21] Aryn  Baker, The Nation that Failed Itself, *Time *(23 May 2009),
14-17.
[22] Fatima Mernissi's *The Forgotten Queens of Islam* Oxford, Oxford
University Press, 2003.
[23] http://www.garenewing.co.uk/angloafghanwar/biography/malalai.php.
Accessed May 22<http://www.garenewing.co.uk/angloafghanwar/biography/malalai.php.%20Accessed%20May%2022>,
2009.
[24] A similar process occurred in the former Communist world. Most recently
in the non-violent overthrow of the Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic.
Daily protests mocking the dictator were instrumental in his downfall. See
the film, *Bringing down a dictator.*  Directed by Steve York. Available at:
http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/films/bdd/index.php
[25] As a brilliant resource of old stories, see Aisha Ahmad and Roger Boase
*, Pashtun Tales from the Pakistan-Afghan Frontier*. London, Saqi Books,
2009.


-- 
Working at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University -
http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html -
http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

Volunteering at the P2P Foundation:
http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net -
http://p2pfoundation.ning.com

Monitor updates at http://del.icio.us/mbauwens

The work of the P2P Foundation is supported by SHIFTN,
http://www.shiftn.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20090607/bdbbf24a/attachment-0001.html>