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Islamabad: Former Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States, China and the United Nations, and former President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sardar Masood Khan has said that twenty-five years after the 9\/11 terrorist attacks, the world must draw lessons from the devastating consequences of prolonged wars, military interventions and the stereotyping of Muslims.<\/p>\n
Sardar Masood Khan in a statement issued in Islamabad, expressed solidarity with the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and the passengers of the aircraft involved.<\/p>\n
Recalling the horrific moment of September 11, 2001, when he was posted in Washington, D.C., he said nearly 3,000 people were killed, including citizens of around 90 nationalities, and Pakistan also lost citizens in the tragedy. He said the immediate aftermath of 9\/11 witnessed unprecedented international solidarity with the United States, including NATO\u2019s invocation of Article 5, under which an attack on one member is treated as an attack on all. However, he observed that the goodwill generated at that time gradually diminished as the \u201cwar on terror\u201d expanded beyond Afghanistan to Iraq and other theatres.<\/p>\n
Sardar Masood Khan said incidents such as Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, followed by US military operations in Syria and Libya, contributed to the erosion of America\u2019s international standing. He noted that, according to a Brown University study, the United States spent approximately $9 trillion on wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, while remaining embroiled in prolonged conflicts. He contrasted this with China\u2019s trajectory during the same period, saying that while the United States remained occupied with \u201cforever wars,\u201d China focused on economic development and emerged as the world\u2019s second-largest economy.<\/p>\n
Turning to Pakistan, he said the country had paid an \u201castronomical\u201d price for the war on terror, including severe reputational damage, economic losses and the loss of around 80,000 lives. He said official estimates put Pakistan\u2019s economic losses at approximately $150 billion, while the actual cost was likely much higher. Despite the withdrawal of US and NATO forces, he noted, Pakistan continues to grapple with terrorism. He described nation-building in Afghanistan as a failed experiment, stressing that societies must develop and build themselves rather than have external models imposed upon them.<\/p>\n
Sardar Masood Khan also highlighted the rise of Islamophobia after 9\/11, saying Muslims increasingly came to be viewed through the prism of terrorism. He described such stereotyping as reductive and harmful to Western societies as well as the Muslim world. He further pointed to the expansion of a culture of surveillance in Western societies, noting that US intelligence agencies had been monitoring Al-Qaeda and tracking Osama bin Laden even before 9\/11, yet the attacks still exposed a massive intelligence failure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe enduring lesson of 9\/11 is that terrorism must be confronted, but prolonged wars, military intervention, stereotyping and failed nation-building cannot provide a sustainable path to peace and security,\u201d Sardar Masood Khan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad: Former Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States, China and the United Nations, and former President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sardar Masood Khan has said that twenty-five years after the 9\/11 terrorist attacks, the world must draw lessons from the devastating consequences of prolonged wars, military interventions and the stereotyping of Muslims. Sardar …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":210725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"yoast_head":"\n