he other day an aged relative enquired as to why could I had nothing to say concerning the 59 or so Tomahawks rained on a Syrian airbase.

I told her that one was rather limited in terms of subject matter due to the scope of the column, which was city specific. Her annoyed rejoinder was: `Don`t you think Lahoris care?` What could one say? I believe she was probably right.

A little of her background, she is a retired college professor, with great empathy and affinity for the Arab cause.

Fluent in Arabic and French, she has travelled frequently to the place and has great reservations on the continued western interference in the region, in the recent past by theAmericans, Arab Spring or otherwise. I remember, when my father, her cousin and a journalist, was alive, the two would often have passionate political debates on the subject. My father would err on the side of democratic principles, a self-proclaimed wishywashy liberal. In retrospect perhaps my aunt had a point.

Af ter all what have the various machinations led to. Were not today`s villains yesterday`s heroes? The entirely fake invasion of Iraq; removal of Saddam, who at one time was a favoured ally in the decade long war with Iran; Osama another ally and later founder of Al-Qaeda; the Arab Spring, which only led to the creation of ISIS; the current strife, a humanitarian crisis leading to mass migration,much disdained by most in West; what does it all mean? What is the overarching strategic objective: the long termgame plan? Apparently, the intervention has only intensihed. In neighbouring Afghanistan, the dropping of`Ummul Bumb` or Mother of all bombs, was a case in point. Is this enhanced re-engagement policy, despite earlier contrary campaign promises, emanating from the White House? Or is just another extension of the agenda of the military-industrial complex. Say what you may but however well intentioned these intervention, they do not bode well for the people of the region. Once modern, significantly secular countries, with modern infrastructure and social welfare nets, have been relegated to the stone age.

Close to home the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Jawwad S Khwaja, at an event in Lahore, had this to say.

`Unfortunately, honest people are not successfulin Pakistani politics.` This one believes is known as stating the obvious.Honesty perhaps is not the best policy these days. In an environment of alternate facts and fake news, what value does a trifle thing like truth hold? Our system, not much unlike other places, has been hijacked to a dishonest, alternadve narrative. Dissent is being slowly stifled: the twin gatekeepers, in maintaining the integrity of this narrative, religion and antistate interpretations. The recent case of the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of some bloggers and the horrific lynching of a student, accused of blasphemy, in a university in Mardan, are clear markers to these trends.

Catering to the populist sentiments not only erodes the fundamental principles of a democratic dispensation and the rule of law, but eats away the basicmoral fiber of society. An unending cycle of lies, creating an environment where there is nothing else to do but tell lies! To be fair this degradation of facts is not exclusively a local phenomenon. Perhaps Joseph Goebbels had it right. An apt comment for our times: `If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.` AM Lahori (AmLahori@gmail.com)