Disdainfully they allude to the
military as ‘The Honor Brigade’ and believe that it is an irrelevant hurdle in
achieving an everlasting peace in the subcontinent and South Asia. The ‘boots’
and the ‘boys’ (the latter a favorite of some youngsters) are linked with every
problem under the sun that plagues Pakistan. The subtlety of the campaign
notwithstanding its malevolence and agenda are too obvious to miss.
In their public façade they are the messengers of love for peace, human rights
and all the conceivable higher values of life, that are the domain of the Divine
and the exalted. The colorful variety of the op-ed and TV worthy ranges from the
secular humanists, the human rights specialists and liberals, exulting in
self-assumed role, proud and boastful. In their view the honor brigade, the
‘duffers’ deserve the ridicule, as they do not possess the capacity to think
beyond bellicosity, jingoism and hate, the basest of human traits. As Mirza
Ghalib could not discuss even the holiest without mentioning wine and the cup no
narrative of these intellectuals is complete without a theatrical reference to
the Military.
In this world the good and the bad exist together. An idyllic world has never
existed nor will it ever. It is to counter the evil that nations maintain police
and the armies. The most advanced, educated and cultured, the flag bearers of
liberty, truth and justice have men to fight to preserve their values. They
train these men and prepare them to lay down their lives for the honor of their
country.
‘Hagakure, the 18th century Japanese book ‘asserted that bushido is really the
“Way of Dying” and that a Samurai must be willing to die at any moment in order
to be true to his lord. His saying, “the way of the warrior is death” was a
summation of the willingness to sacrifice, that bushido codified. HONOR is the
key word in the training and expectations of this warrior.’
Dr. James H. Toner, associated with the US Army, writes, “The preeminent
military task, and what separates (the military professional) from all other
occupations, is that soldiers are routinely prepared to kill….in addition to
killing and preparing to kill, the soldier has two other principle duties…some
soldiers die and when they are not dying, they must be preparing to die.”
‘Aggression and virility’ have always been ‘highly prized in soldiers’.
The buzzword in the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) is ‘Honor’. They strictly
follow the honor code, no lies, no half-truths, no cheating, no pulling legs and
shop from unattended ‘honor shops’. Where there are the Champs there are also
the best losers who lose with honor.
In the units it is the honor of the unit, the Army and above all the honor of
the country, its geographic and ideological frontiers, which must be safeguarded
even “At the peril of my life”, the oath reads at the time of passing out from
the academy. The ideals are the knight’s ‘chivalric code’ a ‘notion of honor and
nobility,’ and Tennyson’s the ‘Charge of The Light Brigade’, “There’s not to
reason why, there’s but to do and die; into the valley of death, rode the six
hundred’; Iqbal’s “Mard-e-Momin”, and glorious examples from history of
devotion, dedication and honor. These are the honor themes that stamp the soul
and provide the impetus for the ultimate, to do and die. This is the mindset
that is developed. Call it mind wash. The word honor is made to become the
fountain of a soldier’s life and those who care to admit, become a national
asset.
During World War-II, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Gorkha regiments fought tooth and
nail and won laurels fighting for the honor of their units and groups
identities. Honor was the only driving force when there was no religious or
national cause to feed upon. If Jihad were the motivation for dying all the
religious bigwigs would have sent their sons to the Armed Forces. Their ideal,
Osama did not send his sons to join al-Qaeda nor did al-Zawahiri. Those who
eulogize suicide bombers as ‘Fedayeens’, have yet to send their own sons on the
noblest path to paradise.
This is the way the Honor Brigade is build. This is the way it lives and dies
and this is the only way it knows. The Shaheeds are the icons of honor.
Conversely a soldier who can take insult cannot be expected to face the bullets.
That is the crux.
They are not barbarians. The martyrdom of a comrade is mourned as a family loss
by all and sundry alike. They are compassionate towards their men. They keep
them in good humor as they can ill afford to take a disgruntled man to the
battlefield. They are truly professionals. That is why according to ABC News
point; General Raheel Sharif tops the list of the best ten generals of the world
today.
The elite force of the third largest army in the world looking helpless before a
handful of terrorists for days was still cheered on. Our honor brigade has been
continuously at war for over a decade without showing any signs of fatigue. The
youngest officer to die in the war against Terror, a few days after his passing
out, mortally wounded, slumped against a rock with his hand half raised in the
sign of victory just before he breathed his last signifies its resolve. In the
honor brigade honor is the first and foremost. It is highly unfair to term this
asset as a fault.
It is the Armed Forces that stand to lose more from war than anyone else. The
war is no war games. It is a grim, bloody and gloomy business. If soldiers
appear to be stubborn on the question of peace it is only because they want
peace but peace with honor.
Nawaz Sharif deserves all the praise as according to Baber Sattar, “in Ufa
Sharif bent over backwards to keep working with Modi”. Nawaz Sharif is a
politician and he knows his job well. Politics is the second oldest profession
and according to Regan it is not much different from the first. No one blames
Nawaz Sharif for what he did. No one should grudge Raheel Sharif for not being
able to act that way, as Raheel cannot become Nawaz overnight. Shehryar Khan the
cricket chief has done even better than bending over backwards. He has
repeatedly pleaded with and begged India for a cricket series. He could do that.
Tauqir Zia would have never done it.
We train, mould and expect this poor honor brigade to live with honor and die
for our honor. If we also expect it to beg for peace or publically endorse its
begging, we are asking for two diametrically opposite behaviors of a person that
is impossible to act unless he is a case of serious dissociative identity
disorder. (ENDS)