Aim high, at collateral gains
Courtesy:- Mian Saifur Rehman
Collateral is not always to be taken in the negative connotations like, for instance, collateral damage. It has a positive shade too.
For example, collateral gains the mention of which was made the other day when PM Nawaz Sharif visited Pakistan Aeronautical Complex Kamra on the occasion of signing of trade and sales agreement with China, on JF-17 Thunder aircraft. Wonderful! Hitherto, we have been hearing about collateral damage only that too with reference to drone strikes although this seems to be a big misconception.
The fact is that collateral damage is a natural sequel to a full-scale war or even a minuscule armed conflict. Those who want complete end to collateral end must work, instead of merely doing lip service, to bring bloody conflicts to a total halt. But, if these ugly things continue collateral damage will continue proportionately even if drone strikes cease to be operational from the very next moment.
Science and technology is yet far away from inventing a bullet or a bomb that kills a combatant or soldier and spares a closely located civilian in a warlike situation.
The situation demands clear-headedness that, however, appears to be the rarest commodity in our society.
Then where lies the remedy? Can some sector leader or a national leader come to our rescue at least in clearing the misconceptions while there is dearth of national leaders nowadays throughout the world?
Yes, there is dearth of cure-all leaders. Rather the world has stopped the hunt for this lot. I’m not propounding some complex theory. The world especially the advanced, successful world bid goodbye, since long, to the concept of depending totally on national, charismatic leaders who would be worshipped as all-time, fourth/fifth-generation, broad-spectrum healers and panacea of all socio-economic, cultural and political ills, crises and problems.
Pakistanis are, however, fortunate enough to have multi-role leading lights who call a spade a spade. Two of them have shot into spotlight once again. They are already in the limelight but now they have shot into spotlight with a particular reference and that revolves around the collateral damage theories and fancy stories. One of them is the man with soft features but with a firm conviction to deal with terrorism with an iron hand. He is none other than Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif, who has taken the masses out of deep morass. And it is not only morass, now people have also come out of that ‘total surrender to militants’ mindset. The chief says that while the armed forces were fully in support of the government’s peace initiatives, terrorism would not be tolerated, rather would be dealt with, in a tit-for-tat manner. The feel of strength and self-preservation (of the nation) is quite obvious in this statement.
The word tit-for-tat suffices to boost the morale of a nation that had become a hostage to mafias of gun-runners, drug-traffickers, kidnappers, extortionists and proclaimed offenders whose ‘kingdom’ is everywhere not only in safe havens of tribal region but also in settled areas of the country where they can cause any degree of collateral damage to anyone without going into the moral aspect of any such ‘ops’ (operation).
And, according to General Sharif, the terrorists and militants would be dealt with effectively and the blood of martyrs would not go un-rewarded.
For sure, these words are reflective of the determination of the top brass to break the shell of lethargy that had been most often caused in the past by the utopian one-page wish.
Another chief has come up with a courageous stance that is at 360 degree variance from the declared position of many of his political associates. He is a chief without uniform but is a man of iron resolve as any other chief of armoury, artillery or infantry. I’m referring to the Chief Minister of Punjab, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, who says that the nation is proud of those security personnel who laid down their lives in the fight against terrorism. What is more significant is his stress on taking decisions after learning lessons from history.
Read this advice of learning lessons from history in the backdrop of CM’s salute to the martyrs and in the light of General Sharif’s determination, then we arrive at the conclusion that the lesson learnt is ‘Aim high at collateral gains’. When collateral gains take over, collateral damage will disappear.
Collateral is not always to be taken in the negative connotations like, for instance, collateral damage. It has a positive shade too.
For example, collateral gains the mention of which was made the other day when PM Nawaz Sharif visited Pakistan Aeronautical Complex Kamra on the occasion of signing of trade and sales agreement with China, on JF-17 Thunder aircraft. Wonderful! Hitherto, we have been hearing about collateral damage only that too with reference to drone strikes although this seems to be a big misconception.
The fact is that collateral damage is a natural sequel to a full-scale war or even a minuscule armed conflict. Those who want complete end to collateral end must work, instead of merely doing lip service, to bring bloody conflicts to a total halt. But, if these ugly things continue collateral damage will continue proportionately even if drone strikes cease to be operational from the very next moment.
Science and technology is yet far away from inventing a bullet or a bomb that kills a combatant or soldier and spares a closely located civilian in a warlike situation.
The situation demands clear-headedness that, however, appears to be the rarest commodity in our society.
Then where lies the remedy? Can some sector leader or a national leader come to our rescue at least in clearing the misconceptions while there is dearth of national leaders nowadays throughout the world?
Yes, there is dearth of cure-all leaders. Rather the world has stopped the hunt for this lot. I’m not propounding some complex theory. The world especially the advanced, successful world bid goodbye, since long, to the concept of depending totally on national, charismatic leaders who would be worshipped as all-time, fourth/fifth-generation, broad-spectrum healers and panacea of all socio-economic, cultural and political ills, crises and problems.
Pakistanis are, however, fortunate enough to have multi-role leading lights who call a spade a spade. Two of them have shot into spotlight once again. They are already in the limelight but now they have shot into spotlight with a particular reference and that revolves around the collateral damage theories and fancy stories. One of them is the man with soft features but with a firm conviction to deal with terrorism with an iron hand. He is none other than Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif, who has taken the masses out of deep morass. And it is not only morass, now people have also come out of that ‘total surrender to militants’ mindset. The chief says that while the armed forces were fully in support of the government’s peace initiatives, terrorism would not be tolerated, rather would be dealt with, in a tit-for-tat manner. The feel of strength and self-preservation (of the nation) is quite obvious in this statement.
The word tit-for-tat suffices to boost the morale of a nation that had become a hostage to mafias of gun-runners, drug-traffickers, kidnappers, extortionists and proclaimed offenders whose ‘kingdom’ is everywhere not only in safe havens of tribal region but also in settled areas of the country where they can cause any degree of collateral damage to anyone without going into the moral aspect of any such ‘ops’ (operation).
And, according to General Sharif, the terrorists and militants would be dealt with effectively and the blood of martyrs would not go un-rewarded.
For sure, these words are reflective of the determination of the top brass to break the shell of lethargy that had been most often caused in the past by the utopian one-page wish.
Another chief has come up with a courageous stance that is at 360 degree variance from the declared position of many of his political associates. He is a chief without uniform but is a man of iron resolve as any other chief of armoury, artillery or infantry. I’m referring to the Chief Minister of Punjab, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, who says that the nation is proud of those security personnel who laid down their lives in the fight against terrorism. What is more significant is his stress on taking decisions after learning lessons from history.
Read this advice of learning lessons from history in the backdrop of CM’s salute to the martyrs and in the light of General Sharif’s determination, then we arrive at the conclusion that the lesson learnt is ‘Aim high at collateral gains’. When collateral gains take over, collateral damage will disappear.
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