Those of us who are proud parents can relate to when our children are going through their ‘terrible twos’. Anything we ask our children, their instantaneous reply is always “no”. It almost seems like a good number of our countrymen are still going through their terrible twos. In their case, shall we add the word ‘extremely’ to their sorry situation? No matter the plethora of evidence presented and regardless of any rhyme, reason or logic, they are unable to embrace the bitter reality. The presence of our ‘security analysts’ and their ‘potshot’ analyses are becoming far more amusing than the best sitcom in any language on any TV channel. Stories about the strategic grandeur of our country and its geopolitical significance to the rest of the world have become a laughing matter. As taught in school, ‘analysis paralysis’ often mars the ability to think straight. PNS Mehran turned out to be yet another ‘conspiracy’ hatched by our ‘worst enemies’ (according to the narrative being churned out by some of our analysts). From the day of Pakistan’s creation to the PNS Mehran, the list of conspiracies is never ending. Heck, let us even roll back the tape to the East India Company and the conspiracies of the British in United India. I can go on and on. So the Brits, who were supposed to be truly evil to the core (our text book version), came to India to steal our ‘Kohinoor’ and dismantle the ‘Muslim rule’. Sit back and think; the Mughals had their good 100-plus years of rule. Granted, as in any monarchy, there are power hungry people, who either conspire or kill to ascend to the throne. But is this not the primary reason why good intelligence is critical to thwart such plots? No one is completely denying or dismissing that those rulers had their foes. But to strictly blame others for conspiring against them is denying reality. They share the blame as well for poor intelligence gathering, lack of planning, governance and proper execution of their vision. Any time there is a weakness somewhere, it gets exploited. Ask any coach of any sport and they will tell you the same thing. It is a perfect example of accessing the adversary, devising a strategy to exploit their weakness. Afterwards comes applying an offensive strategy when it becomes absolutely essential, and all this while never foregoing defence. Then and only then chances are that you can emerge victorious. The same goes for the national security paradigm. Simply blaming others for their devious intent cannot absolve us from lacking in our responsibilities. If one were to add the amount of conspiracies churned out by our most loathed rivals, the presence of Pakistan on the map of this world is nothing short of a divine miracle. One of our analysts, commenting on the Mehran fiasco, gave credit to the superior training of the terrorists. All this makes you wonder why our valiant brass does not factor that into the equation when they prepare for counter-terrorism. Then the most repeated and overplayed line in the world after our ‘nuclear assets’, just makes you want to bang your head on the wall. Supposedly, our most famous foes, such as the US, Israel and neighbouring India, are all nuclear powers themselves. It is not so unique a capability that those countries are not able to replicate us. Perhaps other countries may have such abilities as well, but those countries refrain from carrying them as a medal of honour. One of my fellow scribes put it very aptly on Yaum-e-Takbeer by sending me a message: “This is a day that we celebrate to flaunt in front of the world. Although this bomb was supposed to be a deterrent, but in essence now we are protecting it, even though it was supposed to be doing vice versa.” I could not disagree with him one bit. Looking back 13 years, if we had opted for diplomacy at that juncture, we may have been in a different place perhaps. Even though we have this great asset, but are we any safer? That is the key question. Those of us who think that our neighbours would annihilate us with their bomb ought to think again. The trigger from that end would translate into destruction of unimaginable proportions. It is not bombs and missiles that this entire region needs. This region has been through epic destruction and deprivation for decades. Our common enemy is illiteracy, poverty and lack of development. So those of us who remain in a fool’s paradise by flaunting this bomb should ask themselves: can any bomb feed an empty stomach or better the lives of countless generations who are surviving in sub-human conditions? The expected response would be blatant denial from those quarters with the usual conspiracy mantra. To that steady journey that we are headed towards very sadly, I say: “Insanityville, are we there yet?” The writer is a Pakistani-American. He blogs at http://dasgharspoliticalprism.blogspot.com/ and can be reached at dasghar@aol.comm