The United States recently gave another billion-dollar aid to Pakistan, the key ally in its war against terror, within a few hours after Michael Mullen, recently retired US Navy admiral who served as the 17th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — lashed out at Islamabad for its complicity with the terror network. His candid comments hinted at — ”we are funding a terrorist state”. Afterwards, former US Ambassador to Afghanistan Peter Tomsen said: ‘The United States cannot afford to indulge Pakistan’s support for terrorism any longer. The risks of sticking with the status quo are greater than the risks of adopting a tougher approach.’
Several American commentators and thinkers have found the moral courage to call a spade a spade. Author-journalist Chistopher Hitchens in his article, ”Pakistan is the Enemy” described Pakistani military-intelligence elite as ” the most adroit double-dealing profiteer from terrorism in the entire region.” Expert Lisa Curtis wrote: ”Time to take strong action against Pakistan”. LA Times wrote, ”with an ally like Pakistan, who needs enemies?” “Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world, and the deadly embrace between America and Pakistan becomes more deadly every day”, said Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Saban Center in the Brookings Institution.
In a recent press briefing relating to Af-Pak policy, US President Barack Obama has indirectly stated that a long-term strategic relationship with Pakistan won’t work out if Islamabad’s policy of using terror as an instrument of state policy persists.
In the interim an ISI agent and a Kashmiri lobbyist Gulam Nabi Fai has been arrested by the FBI for his two-decade-long effort to influence the lawmakers in Washington to help Kashmir to be separated from India and his co-accused Dr. Zahir Ahmed was found dead in Pakistan recently. And now a nervous Pakistan in a face-saving effort may execute Dr. Shakil Afridi who is supposed to have helped the US locate Osama Bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad. It was, indeed, a cruel joke.
First sheltering Bin Laden, followed by denials, and then came his surprise killing and now execution of a citizen for treason.
People are asking pointed questions: Is America so gullible that it does not understand Pakistan’s uncanny ability to bring the mighty to its knees when it comes to bargain? Others argue: America knows everything and that the current drama is part of a bigger game plan!
The guardians of the ‘land of pure’ — (implying the Hind, on the other side of the Indus, is impure and infidel though India has 3rd largest Muslim population in the world, slightly less than Pakistan’s own) — will ensure skirmishes like Kargil, 26/11 or raid on Kabul hot zone to keep India and the US on their toes and get billions by arm twisting.
Yet, terror groups like LeT, JeM, Huji etc. will get all the support they need, as the US does not put enough pressure on the Pakistani authorities. Afghans are deeply worried about a chance for peace in their land if Pakistan tries to re-colonize them when US troops leave their country after 2014. Pakistan knows well, India has always been a friend of the Afghans, another reason for its intolerance.
Earlier, the US made Pakistan’s complicity with terrorists public when the Indian Embassy in Kabul was bombed in 2008. Yet, the US military and civilian aid to Pakistan has only increased since. Why? More goodies were given to make them behave? If US authorities knew it, why they didn’t do anything about it? Well, some say unless the US interest is hurt, Washington does not act and only after the recent Kabul episode Admiral Mullen has opened his mouth publicly – though others have tried to downplay it.
If the US is promoting democracy around the world, it is only fair to expect its role to safeguard world’s largest democracy’s interest.
Pakistan inarguably will tell the world how many lives it has sacrificed to terror and what it has done to prevent such heinous acts. Islamabad will insist on how it is working hard to damage control its poor global image. While, the Pakistani Army and the intelligence wing ISI will show off how many al-Qaida members they have captured or liquidated.
However, they forget that the Frankenstein is their own creation. And the price they have paid so far may be is far less than they deserve. The nation was created on hatred and violence to begin with. The great Calcutta Killings of 1946 by the proponents of a Pakistan, the partition and the ensuing bloodbath, the cruel proxy-war in Kashmir and driving out almost all the minority Hindus, the killing of million plus – mostly Hindus in Bangladesh, spearheading a separatist Khalistani movement in Punjab creating a civil war and destroying a vibrant society and economy are some saddest chapters in South Asian history apart from regular ‘thousands of cuts’ inflicted on India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh for decades; and of course AQ Khans nuclear smuggling is the epitome. No one can deny today that Pakistan is the mass producer and exporter of terror in the world.
Islamabad relishes being on dole, serve only those in power, keep the vast population illiterate and famished and promote Islamic terror. Thousands of madrasas are fertile breeding ground for such extremist activities. Moderate and progressive voices are silenced as soon as heard.
But will the American taxpayers put pressure on the US policymakers take actions to keep the ‘terror’ state in check? Some even may blame America for a possible double game. People may think if America abandons Pakistan as an ally the situation will be even worse, China will fill in the gap. It is fact that China aligned with Pakistan since the war of 1962, helped developing nuclear weapons, sells 70% of military hardware of Pakistan. However, today it appears that China is very conscious of the terrorism problem and a bleak future of Pakistan and will not play with fire, though may throw some goodies for specific returns, especially in matters related to India. However, most analysts ignore the biggest supporter of Pakistan – no, it is not North Korea or Iran, it is Saudi Arabia, a land where other faiths including democracy and pluralism have no place; they are the biggest funding source of the Pan-Islamic expansion agenda, and Pakistan is their best bet!
There is wishful thinking doing the rounds that America is going to now take on Pakistan head on!
But a nation built on hatred must keep the negative energy alive to keep it intact. Pakistani military has been doing that since the creation. Civilians are brain-washed to think every Hindustani is a kafir (infidel) and are enemies. Though rare, there were many sane voices who are silenced brutally such as journalists Faisal Qureshi and Syed Saleem Shahzad. In 2010, Reporters without Borders’ press freedom index ranked Pakistan at 151 out of 178 countries. Moderate and reformist Muslim voices are brutally shut using the same terror. Even Imran Khan has become a proponent of the anti-America camp. Minorities, both Muslims and non-Muslims live in constant fear of terror.
Pakistan’s future is extremely important to both the US and India. The breeding ground of terrorism must be under the radar of intelligence; the nuclear weapons must be not only under lens but must be under control.
Is the US still going to be a hostage to an expert fool? Is the US going to turn to India to help dealing with the menace of terrorism for good and co-opt New Delhi as an ally, an offer which was denied earlier? The Americans may also ask, is India ready to take on the sensitive and vital matter jeopardizing vote bank politics by a section of its leaders, who are busy making noise about some fringe Hindu terror groups in order to hide their inabilities?
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s statements clinched the issue: “… (we will) continue to work with its Pakistani counterparts to root out the Haqqani network.”
Some hope that the US may finally declare Pakistan ‘a terrorist state’. However the least one expected was that the Haqqani network be dubbed a foreign terror outfit. One wonders what happened to Hillary’s wisdom as she recently said: ‘ … they (Pakistani authorities) are making a serious, grievous, strategic error supporting these groups, because you think that you can keep a wild animal in the backyard and it will only go after your neighbor? We have too many stories where that doesn’t turn out like that’ Perhaps, the answer lies in the preface of the same speech:
”They also have used groups in the past to support their ongoing conflict with India over Kashmir.’ This is perhaps an indication that all attacks, including the impending ones, will be mentioned in the past tense.
The denials may sound like a marriage saved yet again. How long it will take to have the next conflict, denial, billion-dollar alimony and a temporary settlement?
Some may still think that this is the end of the marriage, and the existence of Pakistan as a terror-exporting nation. Others may think it is business as usual. And of course, a section of soft and liberal population and leadership of India still dreams that a rogue nation and a violent authoritarian extremist regime will have a change of heart via ‘dialogue’!
The billion dollar question is: Do the US policymakers know what to do next in order to get out of this mess and save the world from more pure terror produced in the land of ‘pure’? What are they going to do to achieve the following: a progressive democratic government in Afghanistan and end to bloodshed there, help stop India from bleeding due to the subversive activities from across the border, help the masses of Pakistan (the sixth most populous nation) to create a more humane, progressive and developed society to live in prosperity and dignity?
