The assemblage of quasi intellectuals have started gaining ground, thus invoking semblance of fifth generation warfare (5GW). Result; they are winning, as depicted from campaigns in media including social media platforms. A simple, directed or an ambivalent tweet wreaks havoc and thus sows the seeds for a conspiracy theory to take root; despite the fact that it loses its value in a few days but the damage is done and its effects permanent. It is akin to sensational news being printed on the front-page of a national daily and rebuttal or correction of the story is printed in the internal pages—research carried out showed that usually the corrections or rebuttals end up at page-3, 5 or 7—as a countermeasure to any judicial inquiry or protest. Disinformation is actually the core weapon of 5GW and media (print, electronic, cyber) is the tool for delivery to the intended and planned target audience.
The Armed Forces of Pakistan (amongst them the military, being the largest force of all) glaringly stand out as the sole institution which embodies as the sturdiest anchor against any manoeuvres—overt or covert—by enemies of the state. From nation building tasks (flood relief operations, building roads and dams, etc) to the defence of the motherland, the armed forces have always proved their mettle and they draw their strength from public support, respect and love. And possibly, that is one of the foremost reasons that the military has become the focal target of 5GW, launched from within and beyond the frontiers of Pakistan. The single agenda is to keep targeting the military with the objective to tarnish its image, create discord with the public as well as the government, generate disharmony amongst its ranks with an eventual breakdown of the organisation and resultant chaos—within military and the country.
A quick SWOT analysis brings forth the weaknesses of past actions which are being used as opportunities to target the military and slander its commanders, illustrating them as ‘the bad boys’. Had they been so, we would still be suffering the chockfull wrath of the terrorist proxies and arm-twisting international organisations of our nemeses, regional and international.
Undoubtedly, the best pastime of our memetic 5G warriors—may it be the twitteratis (the never-ending fad), YouTubers, talk-show hosts or in op-eds—is concocting stories and developing conspiracy theories, singing either wittingly or unwittingly in the hands of their ‘friends with benefits’. Army bashing is a new trend and very fashionable amongst the go-getters accruing unimaginable bounties and allied benefits; 1) become an overnight media sensation 2) become a darling of the neo-liberals, 3) get a quick pass for immigration, 4) earn the ire of the military and a vouchsafed voucher by Human Rights organisations, 5) acknowledgement by quasi-intellectuals as a leading ‘intellectual’ and ‘analyst’, 6) promoted, benefited and taken on by 5GW protagonists (‘friends’ of our enemies with the ultra-objective of creating as much havoc for the military as possible and eventual discord with public). Anatol Lieven appraised, “the media are just as addicted to conspiracy theories as the rest of Pakistani society” and “I have heard as many cretinous conspiracy theories about America from journalists as from ordinary Pakistanis…to weave their fantasies…I must say that liberal journalists are just as bad, with the difference that their baroque conspiracy theories are directed at the Army.”[sic]
Military commanders, more specifically the senior leadership, though a permanent target of slander and ludicrous conspiracy theories, have never boasted regarding their personal sacrifices; a senior commander being a brother of a shaheed, another a proud father of a son who undertook a daring action sacrificing his life to save children, another himself an orphan and has SOS village as his next of kin, another, despite having personal and health issues led his troops to the ‘valley of unknown’. It’s a never ending tale of sacrifices and anguish but still no names are mentioned, because it is ingrained into them that there is nothing special in what they have done and that it is their duty. A medal here and some pecuniary there does not bring those who they lost while still trying to perform at the optimum. There is never public declaration of the in-house inquiries, penances and castigations, as in other countries, yet the conspiracy theories evolve, revolve and culminate in an unbounded slandering campaign against the military as a whole—there is no such case in point either in any of our neighbouring countries or the quintessential first world countries.
Any statement by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) or some address to officers by the head of the military becomes a source of yet another conspiracy theory. Whenever ISPR gives a press briefing, it is concocted, analysed unabashedly with the intent to draw conclusions which never exist, and if ISPR does not issue a statement it is criticised for not giving out information on an issue and befits for yet another source of conspiracy theory with the aim to create further ambiguities; a paradox in itself. When ISPR stated that it does not want to be involved in any politics, it should have been appreciated as very forthright temperament, but it became the source of another flimflam for the quasi intellectuals and another notch to bash the military.
So far, 5GW directed against ‘the bad boys’ has not been able to achieve the desired results to give the pleasure of success to the enemies within and abroad, but it certainly has affected a specific segment of the burgeoning middle class which can be countered by the incumbent government as well as responsible media, journalists, anchor persons, talk-show hosts, and social media vigilantes/mercenaries, who are well aware of the designs of the onslaught launched through 5GW. The bad boys are here to stay—to safeguard the frontiers of their homeland.