The Fallacies of an Us Vs Them Approach to the Influential Right Wing Media

If it's anything we need to learn from our British rulers of yesteryear it is their doctrine of divide and rule. Unity means strength, something we have been told with numerous anecdotal stories as children. So when tackling a number far superior to yours, it makes absolute sense to seek fragmentation. The US made this mistake when tackling Al Qaeda in 2001. Instead of isolating them from the Taliban, and the Taliban from the Pushtun, they pushed them together and got stuck into fighting a population. It is worth remembering that back in October 2001, two weeks into the US invasion of Afghanistan, the then Deputy Prime Minister Haji Abdul Kabir of Afghanistan offered up Osama Bin Laden to the international community in exchange of stopping the aerial bombings that were taking a massive civilian toll, only to have the offer turned down by George Bush. Probably over confident of the all powering American War Machine at the time. It may be plausible knowing what we know now 10 years later, the present dismal state of Afghanistan despite hundreds of billions of dollars, that today he may have thought twice before turning down the offer.

Today Pakistan faces a similar situation with the troubling growth of extremism in the country. The general response to this ideological war from the left has been an all out attack(written, blogged, printed) on everyone ranging from the guy who pulled the trigger, those who endorsed it, anyone who failed to condemn it, those who showed indifference, all the way to those who feared retribution and chose silence. It is true the crime was heinous and deserves every bit of condemnation, but we can not afford to make this an 'us verses them' war, a liberalism vs extremism ideological war, where we define an extremist as all of the above. By using terms such as closet extremists we keep on stacking them together not only giving them more numerical strength but also legitimacy in pursuing an anti liberal agenda. And the biggest problem is most liberals have a very limited audience, an english speaking, internet capable, rational minded audience who can see through all the various types of entertaining conspiracy theories available on youtube. On the contrary those that are being taken on, have a massive audience running into millions through their frequent tv shows. Today we have TV presenters who till some time back could be occasionally expected to talk against extremism, now always juxtaposing extremism with liberalism as antithetical poles and the problem of our present dilemma. Now with a lot more hostility towards the left, usually by adding accusations of class distinctions in the mix, the result is a conscious or unconscious indoctrination of hate. Which is kind of ironic because they probably make a lot more money than anyone in the print media. If this war continues like this there is only going to be one winner and it is not those tweeting. A change of strategy is needed.