Whose war is it anyway?

What is it going to take to make us Pakistanis realise that the war against terror raging in the northern and tribal areas of the country...

What is it going to take to make us Pakistanis realise that the war against terror raging in the northern and tribal areas of the country 8212; and increasingly, in major urban centers 8212; is our war? The suicide bombing at Islamabad8217;s Marriott Hotel should have done the trick. The attack occurred in Ramadan, a holy month that the government initially aimed to observe by declaring a cease-fire with the militants. Although that move was deemed a security faux pas, the fact that the militants who fight in the name of God felt no similar compulsion to respect the sanctity of Ramadan should resonate with many. As should the CCTV footage showing the hotel8217;s hapless security guards rushing about moments before the attack, which is circulating endlessly via YouTube.

More than the timing of the attack, its devastating death toll should have Pakistanis simultaneously enraged and introspective. By conservative estimates, 53 people were killed and 250 injured in the suicide bombing. Of those killed, four have been identified as foreigners: two US Marines, the Czech ambassador, and a Danish intelligence official. The rest were Pakistanis 8212; innocent hotel employees and area residents out with their families for dinner. As a result, the local media dubbed the attack 8220;Pakistan8217;s 9/11.8221; But that moniker has not necessarily provoked Pakistanis to take ownership of the local war against terror.

On Wednesday night, Islamabad-based journalists allegedly received text messages from the group that has claimed responsibility for the Marriott bombing, stating that more attacks against American targets were imminent. Interestingly enough, the Pakistani owner of the Marriott Hotel and others who dared 8216;facilitate8217; the United States were identified as targets. The ludicrous claim that a successful Pakistani businessman is 8216;an American target8217; should make the majority of us realise that this spreading terror is in fact an internal matter and one that is steadily spinning out of control. After all, when Pakistanis become 8216;American targets8217; for inexplicable reasons, no one remains immune. Am I vulnerable because I have attended university in the US? Are you in the line of fire because you keep your savings in US dollars?

The Marriott attack was the eleventh suicide bombing in Pakistan this year, and the sixth in Islamabad since July last year. Over 300 people have already died in nationwide suicide attacks this year, a shocking statistic in a country where suicide bombings were rare about five years ago. No wonder then, everyone in Pakistan is on edge. On Thursday, days after the Marriott attack, security at the Islamabad airport remained on high alert after a suicide bombing threat. Many perceived this as the beginning of the end, an early stage in the gradual paralysis of normal life, the dawning of an era in which regular suicide bombings will be a norm.

And yet, we Pakistanis still don8217;t think of the war against terror as our war.

Evidence for this fact came from New York this week where President Asif Ali Zardari 8212; in town to address the United Nations General Assembly 8212; found himself tiptoeing around the issue. Zardari has made a concerted effort in recent weeks to reframe the militant threat as Pakistan8217;s problem. He has repeatedly stated that the war against terror is Pakistan8217;s war and resorted to evocative metaphors of disease and despair to emphasize the inward focus of the terrorist threat. But saying it won8217;t make it so.

The fact is, any action against the militants is still perceived by most Pakistanis as an execution of US directives. That perception is amplified in the case of Zardari, who has yet to shake off his reputation as a puppet of the US 8212; an opinion that found more takers once the new president cancelled his scheduled trip to China and instead made his first official visit to the US.

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In June, a poll conducted by the International Republican Institute showed that 71 per cent of Pakistanis oppose Pakistan8217;s cooperation with the US against Muslim militants. The fact that Zardari spent most of his time with President Bush swapping semantics on the issue of national sovereignty and emphasising that Pakistan was opposed to ground operations by US troops on its soil implies that sentiment continues to hold water, even after the Marriott bombing. It probably doesn8217;t help that US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that the 8220;greatest threat of terrorism against the United States comes from the tribal areas of Pakistan8221; while Zardari was still hobnobbing with world leaders. This statement suggests that US involvement in Pakistani terrorism is only due to escalate.

For Pakistanis to truly embrace the war against terror as their war, the US must back off. Only when the Pakistan Army fights this war in isolation can we convincingly say that this is our war. And it must be our war, for only then can we rally and organise to demand security from our government, accountability from the clerics in our mosques, and loyalty from the tribal leaders who host Taliban militants. Once Pakistan8217;s stakes in the war on terror are established, the government will be in a position to request 8212; without seeming like a mere stooge or siphon 8212; much-needed aid from the international community in the form of intelligence cooperation, resources, and counterterrorism training for our troops. Without that, this is a war that cannot be won.

The writer is a Karachi-based journalist