Former US diplomat urges Washington to engage with Pakistan on crisis in Afghanistan

[ghazi52]

Former US diplomat urges Washington to engage with Pakistan on crisis in Afghanistan

Mon, 23 Aug 2021

Former US diplomat to Afghanistan, Pakistan Ryan Crocker


NEW YORK, Aug 23 (APP) : A veteran US diplomat has called on the Biden administration to engage with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with the unfolding situation in Afghanistan, saying that the “American disaster” in the war-torn country was the result of President Joe Biden’s impatience.

Ryan Crocker, who served as ambassador to Afghanistan and later to Pakistan, wrote in The New York Times that that Biden’s “strategic impatience”, which he said Americans lack, has given a huge boost to the Taliban as well as to “militant Islam” everywhere.

In an opinion piece, Crocker said that the effect of that development would also be felt next door in Pakistan where the T.T.P. has been engaged in attacking targets inside Pakistan. However, a VOA report, quoting highly placed sources, said that a high-powered commission, set up by Afghanistan’s Taliban, has been working to press anti-Pakistan militants to stop violence against the neighbouring country and return to their homes across the border with their families.

Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada set up the three-member commission recently to look into Islamabad’s complaints that the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is using Afghan soil to plot cross-border terrorist attacks, the sources were cited as saying.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also told the media in Kabul that no terrorist group will be allowed to use the Afghan soil against any country.

In his article, Crocker wrote (in part):

“I recall the comment attributed to a captured Taliban fighter from a number of years ago: You Americans have the watches, but we have the time. Sadly that view proved accurate — the Taliban outlasted us and our impatience.

“After the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan at the hands of U.S.-trained and armed mujahedeen in 1989, training that was facilitated by Pakistan, we decided we were done. We could see the Afghan civil war coming — the only thing holding the disparate Afghan groups together was a common enemy. But that was not our problem — we were leaving. On the way out, we stopped helping Pakistan in a key way: We ended security and economic assistance because of its nuclear weapons program, something we’d exempted before.

“So Pakistan, in its own narrative, went from being the most allied of allies to the most sanctioned of adversaries. That is why Pakistan threw its support to the Taliban when they started gaining ground in the 1990s: It could end a dangerous conflict along Pakistan’s own unstable borders.

“And that is why a decade later after 9/11, Pakistan welcomed the return of the United States — and U.S. assistance. It would work with the US against Al Qaeda.

“But we soon learned that the Taliban were a sticky matter. I was ambassador to Pakistan from 2004 to 2007. I pushed Pakistani officials repeatedly on the need to deny the Taliban safe havens. The answer I got back over time went like this: “We know you. We know you don’t have patience for the long fight. We know the day will come when you just get tired and go home — it’s what you do. But we aren’t going anywhere — this is where we live. So if you think we are going to turn the Taliban into a mortal enemy, you are completely crazy.”

“We have again validated their skepticism.

“The Washington Post notes that ‘as the Taliban swept across neighboring Afghanistan, some Pakistanis saw it as a reason to celebrate’.” Yet I doubt there are many high fives being exchanged in Islamabad today. The American disaster in Afghanistan that Mr. Biden’s impatience brought about is not a disaster just for us. It has also been a huge boost for the Taliban, whose narrative now is that the believers, clad in the armor of the one true faith, have vanquished the infidels….

“We need to be engaged with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with this enhanced threat. The prospect of violent destabilization of a country with about 210 million people and nuclear weapons is not a pretty one. The same is true in Iran. It’s always good to see the Great Satan take a kick in the face, and it’s worth a little gloating, but the Islamic Republic and the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate almost went to war in 1998. A region is worried, and it is right to be so.”

 

[PakFactor]

Former US diplomat urges Washington to engage with Pakistan on crisis in Afghanistan

Mon, 23 Aug 2021

View attachment 772514

Former US diplomat to Afghanistan, Pakistan Ryan Crocker


NEW YORK, Aug 23 (APP) : A veteran US diplomat has called on the Biden administration to engage with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with the unfolding situation in Afghanistan, saying that the “American disaster” in the war-torn country was the result of President Joe Biden’s impatience.

Ryan Crocker, who served as ambassador to Afghanistan and later to Pakistan, wrote in The New York Times that that Biden’s “strategic impatience”, which he said Americans lack, has given a huge boost to the Taliban as well as to “militant Islam” everywhere.

In an opinion piece, Crocker said that the effect of that development would also be felt next door in Pakistan where the T.T.P. has been engaged in attacking targets inside Pakistan. However, a VOA report, quoting highly placed sources, said that a high-powered commission, set up by Afghanistan’s Taliban, has been working to press anti-Pakistan militants to stop violence against the neighbouring country and return to their homes across the border with their families.

Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada set up the three-member commission recently to look into Islamabad’s complaints that the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is using Afghan soil to plot cross-border terrorist attacks, the sources were cited as saying.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also told the media in Kabul that no terrorist group will be allowed to use the Afghan soil against any country.

In his article, Crocker wrote (in part):

“I recall the comment attributed to a captured Taliban fighter from a number of years ago: You Americans have the watches, but we have the time. Sadly that view proved accurate — the Taliban outlasted us and our impatience.

“After the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan at the hands of U.S.-trained and armed mujahedeen in 1989, training that was facilitated by Pakistan, we decided we were done. We could see the Afghan civil war coming — the only thing holding the disparate Afghan groups together was a common enemy. But that was not our problem — we were leaving. On the way out, we stopped helping Pakistan in a key way: We ended security and economic assistance because of its nuclear weapons program, something we’d exempted before.

“So Pakistan, in its own narrative, went from being the most allied of allies to the most sanctioned of adversaries. That is why Pakistan threw its support to the Taliban when they started gaining ground in the 1990s: It could end a dangerous conflict along Pakistan’s own unstable borders.

“And that is why a decade later after 9/11, Pakistan welcomed the return of the United States — and U.S. assistance. It would work with the US against Al Qaeda.

“But we soon learned that the Taliban were a sticky matter. I was ambassador to Pakistan from 2004 to 2007. I pushed Pakistani officials repeatedly on the need to deny the Taliban safe havens. The answer I got back over time went like this: “We know you. We know you don’t have patience for the long fight. We know the day will come when you just get tired and go home — it’s what you do. But we aren’t going anywhere — this is where we live. So if you think we are going to turn the Taliban into a mortal enemy, you are completely crazy.”

“We have again validated their skepticism.

“The Washington Post notes that ‘as the Taliban swept across neighboring Afghanistan, some Pakistanis saw it as a reason to celebrate’.” Yet I doubt there are many high fives being exchanged in Islamabad today. The American disaster in Afghanistan that Mr. Biden’s impatience brought about is not a disaster just for us. It has also been a huge boost for the Taliban, whose narrative now is that the believers, clad in the armor of the one true faith, have vanquished the infidels….

“We need to be engaged with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with this enhanced threat. The prospect of violent destabilization of a country with about 210 million people and nuclear weapons is not a pretty one. The same is true in Iran. It’s always good to see the Great Satan take a kick in the face, and it’s worth a little gloating, but the Islamic Republic and the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate almost went to war in 1998. A region is worried, and it is right to be so.”

Suddenly Pakistan is important again; let's wait until they shower more non-NATO ally mantra and stuff, Lol. This is becoming a joke now.

 

[Maula Jatt]

Isn't it a tad bit late for that...

 

[khansaheeb]

Too late to play the fear card, whatever will happen will happen and Pakistan can deal with it alone. Our greatest threat are the Indians across the border and their terrorists within Pakistan. Friends stay friends in thick and thin but Pakistan was stabbed time and time again by short sighted policies.

 

[khansaheeb]

Enough is enough

From shock to blame-games, politicians and media in the US and Nato states are now seeking scapegoats for the Afghan debacle where they saw the entire Afghan National Army disintegrate and Afghan...

www.thenews.com.pk

• Enough is enough
  
  Shireen M Mazari
  Tuesday, Aug 24, 2021
  
  
  
  

From shock to blame-games, politicians and media in the US and Nato states are now seeking scapegoats for the Afghan debacle where they saw the entire Afghan National Army (ANA) disintegrate and Afghan President Ghani flee out of Kabul as the Taliban marched into Kabul unhindered.
Twenty years of military occupation by the US and Nato had merely seen the removal of the Taliban only to end in the return of the Taliban. Answers to the following two questions will explain the success of the Taliban: Why did the Afghan Army not fight? Where did the trillion plus US dollars disappear to in Afghanistan?
However, those are questions for the American people, their allies and perhaps historians to examine. What has always been clear to Imran Khan and many of us in Pakistan – a country that has suffered the most, after Afghanistan, as a result of being dragged into wars that were not Pakistan’s wars – is that there could never be a military solution to the Afghan crisis. Decades before Imran Khan became prime minister he kept stressing this point repeatedly and calling for dialogue amongst all Afghan factions. By the time the US was ready to make an agreement with the Taliban in Doha, it was from a far weaker position than if it had taken this step a decade earlier.
Perhaps it is a trifle unfair to solely blame President Biden for the entire Afghan debacle, given that he inherited not just the war but also the Doha agreement and a withdrawal commitment. Given the situation on the ground, it would not have been different had the US delayed its withdrawal. In fact, the outcome is better than many expected. There has been little bloodshed; the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTA) have stated that they want an inclusive government; will protect the rights of women and girls; will not allow Afghan territory to be used against any country for attacks; and will not provide sanctuary anymore to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for its India-supported terrorism agenda against Pakistan. Equally important for Pakistan is the Taliban statement recognizing all international borders.
As the country that has suffered the most from the fallout of foreign occupations and wars in Afghanistan, these statements of policy by the Taliban are a positive declaratory start towards establishing peace and stability which will only gain credibility once actions reflecting these commitments are undertaken by the new Afghan government that is formed.
The world forgets that Pakistan has repeatedly been the victim of the fallout of refugees and terrorism – first from the Soviet invasion and then the post-9/11 US and Nato occupation of Afghanistan. Both times Pakistan’s military dictators involved the country in these wars and the political governments that followed were unable to take a strong position to extricate Pakistan from these disastrous policies.
When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Pakistan was forced to train the Mujahideen with CIA funding and bore the brunt of millions of Afghan refugees coming into the country, bringing what became known as the ‘drug and Kalashnikov culture’. Many of the Taliban emerged from the border refugee camps and, with a powerful mix of Pashtun nationalism and Jihad slogans, Pakistan saw its then tribal region destabilized with Pakistanis being viewed as collaborators of the US. The Geneva Accords may have allowed the Soviets an exit out of Afghanistan but the refugee issue was ignored in this Agreement.
Post-9/11, despite the fact that no Pakistani was involved in the Twin Towers attack, Pakistan was forced into becoming a frontline participant in the US/Nato war in Afghanistan with disastrous consequences. Not only was there a new stream of refugees, Pakistan also got dragged into another war that was not ours to fight. We suffered 80,000 casualties, polarization within our society and more than $150 billion loss to the economy. Worse still, our tribal belt saw further destabilization, especially with 430 (June 2004 – Jan 2018) US illegal drone attacks with civilians directly targeted including wedding parties and funerals. These drone attacks were a hostile military act carried out against an ‘ally’. Apart from Imran Khan, no Pakistani political leader raised a voice against these attacks (except paying overt lip service and informing the Americans covertly of support) or against the war that also created widespread extremist terrorism in Pakistan. US commitments that this time Pakistan would not be abandoned ended in sanctions against Pakistan.
Despite the sacrifices made by Pakistan for the US war on terror, including providing crucial logistical support to the US/Nato occupation forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan became an unrelenting punching bag for the failing Afghan government, its RAW-funded NDS and its collapsing ANA. Now we are seeing the scapegoating of Pakistan for US/Nato failures in Afghanistan – with India fuelling these attacks since it has lost its Western staging ground for proxy terrorism in Pakistan.
When Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government was elected to office, it pushed for dialogue and peace in Afghanistan and made clear that it could no longer be a partner in war. Pakistan did all it could to facilitate Taliban negotiations with the US, including releasing the imprisoned Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Baradar as sought by the US. Through the Doha agreement the US gave legitimacy to the TTA, even welcoming Baradar in Washington. The Taliban’s rapid advance to reach Kabul and the capitulation of the ANA and the Ghani regime cannot be blamed on Pakistan.
Pakistan has made its policy clear: it is seeking to ensure an inclusive government in Afghanistan that will protect the rights of women, girls and minorities; it will work to develop a consensus for international recognition of an inclusive Taliban-led Afghan government; and, critically, it will seek action from the TTA on its commitment not to allow Afghan territory to be used against Pakistan. Pakistan will no longer accept being scapegoated for the failures of others. Enough is enough.

The writer is the federal minister for human rights.
Twitter: @ShireenMazari1
The views expressed by the writer are her own.

 

[Thorough Pro]

Pakistan's PM has better thing s to do then attend the phone call from sleepy joe. These fucking Americans come running whenever they need us, otherwise they act is high society prostitute, out of our buying reach. Go **** yourselves you white pigs and get some indian to lick your filthy arses.

Former US diplomat urges Washington to engage with Pakistan on crisis in Afghanistan

Mon, 23 Aug 2021

View attachment 772514

Former US diplomat to Afghanistan, Pakistan Ryan Crocker


NEW YORK, Aug 23 (APP) : A veteran US diplomat has called on the Biden administration to engage with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with the unfolding situation in Afghanistan, saying that the “American disaster” in the war-torn country was the result of President Joe Biden’s impatience.

Ryan Crocker, who served as ambassador to Afghanistan and later to Pakistan, wrote in The New York Times that that Biden’s “strategic impatience”, which he said Americans lack, has given a huge boost to the Taliban as well as to “militant Islam” everywhere.

In an opinion piece, Crocker said that the effect of that development would also be felt next door in Pakistan where the T.T.P. has been engaged in attacking targets inside Pakistan. However, a VOA report, quoting highly placed sources, said that a high-powered commission, set up by Afghanistan’s Taliban, has been working to press anti-Pakistan militants to stop violence against the neighbouring country and return to their homes across the border with their families.

Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada set up the three-member commission recently to look into Islamabad’s complaints that the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is using Afghan soil to plot cross-border terrorist attacks, the sources were cited as saying.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also told the media in Kabul that no terrorist group will be allowed to use the Afghan soil against any country.

In his article, Crocker wrote (in part):

“I recall the comment attributed to a captured Taliban fighter from a number of years ago: You Americans have the watches, but we have the time. Sadly that view proved accurate — the Taliban outlasted us and our impatience.

“After the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan at the hands of U.S.-trained and armed mujahedeen in 1989, training that was facilitated by Pakistan, we decided we were done. We could see the Afghan civil war coming — the only thing holding the disparate Afghan groups together was a common enemy. But that was not our problem — we were leaving. On the way out, we stopped helping Pakistan in a key way: We ended security and economic assistance because of its nuclear weapons program, something we’d exempted before.

“So Pakistan, in its own narrative, went from being the most allied of allies to the most sanctioned of adversaries. That is why Pakistan threw its support to the Taliban when they started gaining ground in the 1990s: It could end a dangerous conflict along Pakistan’s own unstable borders.

“And that is why a decade later after 9/11, Pakistan welcomed the return of the United States — and U.S. assistance. It would work with the US against Al Qaeda.

“But we soon learned that the Taliban were a sticky matter. I was ambassador to Pakistan from 2004 to 2007. I pushed Pakistani officials repeatedly on the need to deny the Taliban safe havens. The answer I got back over time went like this: “We know you. We know you don’t have patience for the long fight. We know the day will come when you just get tired and go home — it’s what you do. But we aren’t going anywhere — this is where we live. So if you think we are going to turn the Taliban into a mortal enemy, you are completely crazy.”

“We have again validated their skepticism.

“The Washington Post notes that ‘as the Taliban swept across neighboring Afghanistan, some Pakistanis saw it as a reason to celebrate’.” Yet I doubt there are many high fives being exchanged in Islamabad today. The American disaster in Afghanistan that Mr. Biden’s impatience brought about is not a disaster just for us. It has also been a huge boost for the Taliban, whose narrative now is that the believers, clad in the armor of the one true faith, have vanquished the infidels….

“We need to be engaged with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with this enhanced threat. The prospect of violent destabilization of a country with about 210 million people and nuclear weapons is not a pretty one. The same is true in Iran. It’s always good to see the Great Satan take a kick in the face, and it’s worth a little gloating, but the Islamic Republic and the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate almost went to war in 1998. A region is worried, and it is right to be so.”

 

[FuturePAF]

On the way out, we stopped helping Pakistan in a key way: We ended security and economic assistance because of its nuclear weapons program, something we’d exempted before.

“So Pakistan, in its own narrative, went from being the most allied of allies to the most sanctioned of adversaries.

Prime Minister Khan has told the US the kind of relationship that would enhance US security as well as Pakistan and the region’s stability; More Trade and Investment. After the end of the Cold War, the US didn’t walk away from Central and Eastern Europe, but doubled down to engage them. Out went the communist ideology as the economies reformed and saw rapid growth. Studying what happened then could be very insightful and offer a preliminary set of possible options. (A pre 9/11 document)

https://www.nato.int/docu/colloq/1999/pdf/269-283.pdf

In the short term Humanitarian aid will help stabilize the situation in Afghanistan and prevent an exodus into Pakistan, mitigating somewhat the effects of the collapse of the Afghan State. Further aid to the new Afghan state’s institutions such as education and health care (if it upholds certain agreements) will also reduce the burden Pakistan has to bare.

Investment (Not aid) into the Pakistani economy; FDI of at least 2-3% of GDP annually can create stable growth (similar to the early 2000s when approx. that much FDI was coming in) and gives people renewed hope in their future.

US investment will also be the best way to outcompete China and rebuild the image of the US in the region (a crucial juncture point of OBOR) as Great Power competition becomes the center point of US foreign policy.

Along with enhanced trade ties, a more balanced defense relationship would go a long way in assuaging Pakistani concerns of the US (inadvertently or purposefully) supporting a regional power imbalance. Enhanced US ties at the expense of Pakistan’s security will undermine some of the goodwill economic investments would bring. Allowing the sale of weapons that allow Pakistan to maintain qualitative parity with India would echo similar region stabilizing postured the US has maintained elsewhere. Prevent skirmishes from escalating by supporting Pakistan’s ability to maintain an adequate conventional defensive capability will allow Pakistan to concentrate more resources to social spending, and thereby greater stability.

Therefore, the US can start by immediately releasing the AH-1Z helicopters, engines for the T-129 helicopters, allowing the Sale of Block 72 F-16s through CSF funds, selling Pakistan equipment to enhance its police forces in counter terror and general law enforcement operations (such as thousands of surplus MRAPS and surplus MD-530 light commando helicopters), and generally returning to a more comprehensive but balanced mil-to-mil relationship is key in building back trust after years of the cold shoulder.

 

[Goritoes]

Nah, America won't... to big of a ego to ask help from a weak small country like Pakistan..

 

[TigerOfMysore]

Former US diplomat urges Washington to engage with Pakistan on crisis in Afghanistan

Mon, 23 Aug 2021

View attachment 772514

Former US diplomat to Afghanistan, Pakistan Ryan Crocker


NEW YORK, Aug 23 (APP) : A veteran US diplomat has called on the Biden administration to engage with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with the unfolding situation in Afghanistan, saying that the “American disaster” in the war-torn country was the result of President Joe Biden’s impatience.

Ryan Crocker, who served as ambassador to Afghanistan and later to Pakistan, wrote in The New York Times that that Biden’s “strategic impatience”, which he said Americans lack, has given a huge boost to the Taliban as well as to “militant Islam” everywhere.

In an opinion piece, Crocker said that the effect of that development would also be felt next door in Pakistan where the T.T.P. has been engaged in attacking targets inside Pakistan. However, a VOA report, quoting highly placed sources, said that a high-powered commission, set up by Afghanistan’s Taliban, has been working to press anti-Pakistan militants to stop violence against the neighbouring country and return to their homes across the border with their families.

Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada set up the three-member commission recently to look into Islamabad’s complaints that the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is using Afghan soil to plot cross-border terrorist attacks, the sources were cited as saying.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also told the media in Kabul that no terrorist group will be allowed to use the Afghan soil against any country.

In his article, Crocker wrote (in part):

“I recall the comment attributed to a captured Taliban fighter from a number of years ago: You Americans have the watches, but we have the time. Sadly that view proved accurate — the Taliban outlasted us and our impatience.

“After the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan at the hands of U.S.-trained and armed mujahedeen in 1989, training that was facilitated by Pakistan, we decided we were done. We could see the Afghan civil war coming — the only thing holding the disparate Afghan groups together was a common enemy. But that was not our problem — we were leaving. On the way out, we stopped helping Pakistan in a key way: We ended security and economic assistance because of its nuclear weapons program, something we’d exempted before.

“So Pakistan, in its own narrative, went from being the most allied of allies to the most sanctioned of adversaries. That is why Pakistan threw its support to the Taliban when they started gaining ground in the 1990s: It could end a dangerous conflict along Pakistan’s own unstable borders.

“And that is why a decade later after 9/11, Pakistan welcomed the return of the United States — and U.S. assistance. It would work with the US against Al Qaeda.

“But we soon learned that the Taliban were a sticky matter. I was ambassador to Pakistan from 2004 to 2007. I pushed Pakistani officials repeatedly on the need to deny the Taliban safe havens. The answer I got back over time went like this: “We know you. We know you don’t have patience for the long fight. We know the day will come when you just get tired and go home — it’s what you do. But we aren’t going anywhere — this is where we live. So if you think we are going to turn the Taliban into a mortal enemy, you are completely crazy.”

“We have again validated their skepticism.

“The Washington Post notes that ‘as the Taliban swept across neighboring Afghanistan, some Pakistanis saw it as a reason to celebrate’.” Yet I doubt there are many high fives being exchanged in Islamabad today. The American disaster in Afghanistan that Mr. Biden’s impatience brought about is not a disaster just for us. It has also been a huge boost for the Taliban, whose narrative now is that the believers, clad in the armor of the one true faith, have vanquished the infidels….

“We need to be engaged with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with this enhanced threat. The prospect of violent destabilization of a country with about 210 million people and nuclear weapons is not a pretty one. The same is true in Iran. It’s always good to see the Great Satan take a kick in the face, and it’s worth a little gloating, but the Islamic Republic and the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate almost went to war in 1998. A region is worried, and it is right to be so.”

Too late - the goose is cooked. The US has lost Pakistan. That will be the real loss - something they'll realize soon enough, and something which I think is a much bigger disaster for the US, than what has happened in Afghanistan.

US did not lose in Afghanistan, it lost Pakistan!

America lost in large measure because it bought the Indian narrative and developed its Afpak policy squarely around it.

rava.pk

 

[imadul]

Pakistan baddest time has passed. There were weekly suicide bombing in Pakistan starting from 2007 sometimes reaching up to three a week. Think tanks were giving Pakistan Balkanization time of 2012.
الحمد للہ، Pakistan has come off of it after innumerable sacrifices of LEA. Musharraf had an evil role in pulling war on terror in Pakistan and then Mian-Zardari duo just laughed out and ballooned their filthy stomachs with loot and plunder and towing foreign lines.
With IK, though his governance style is wanting, and Army working in synch has achieved some good strategic targets in Afghanistan and bring stability in Pakistan also.

US ain't coming back in the region...india will try all it can, it wont swallow its defeat, with physical access denied it wont be able to inflict damage of the scale..but Pakistan should be ready.
Future shall be good for Pakistan.

 

[SD 10]

Former US diplomat urges Washington to engage with Pakistan on crisis in Afghanistan

Mon, 23 Aug 2021

View attachment 772514

Former US diplomat to Afghanistan, Pakistan Ryan Crocker


NEW YORK, Aug 23 (APP) : A veteran US diplomat has called on the Biden administration to engage with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with the unfolding situation in Afghanistan, saying that the “American disaster” in the war-torn country was the result of President Joe Biden’s impatience.

Ryan Crocker, who served as ambassador to Afghanistan and later to Pakistan, wrote in The New York Times that that Biden’s “strategic impatience”, which he said Americans lack, has given a huge boost to the Taliban as well as to “militant Islam” everywhere.

In an opinion piece, Crocker said that the effect of that development would also be felt next door in Pakistan where the T.T.P. has been engaged in attacking targets inside Pakistan. However, a VOA report, quoting highly placed sources, said that a high-powered commission, set up by Afghanistan’s Taliban, has been working to press anti-Pakistan militants to stop violence against the neighbouring country and return to their homes across the border with their families.

Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada set up the three-member commission recently to look into Islamabad’s complaints that the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is using Afghan soil to plot cross-border terrorist attacks, the sources were cited as saying.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also told the media in Kabul that no terrorist group will be allowed to use the Afghan soil against any country.

In his article, Crocker wrote (in part):

“I recall the comment attributed to a captured Taliban fighter from a number of years ago: You Americans have the watches, but we have the time. Sadly that view proved accurate — the Taliban outlasted us and our impatience.

“After the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan at the hands of U.S.-trained and armed mujahedeen in 1989, training that was facilitated by Pakistan, we decided we were done. We could see the Afghan civil war coming — the only thing holding the disparate Afghan groups together was a common enemy. But that was not our problem — we were leaving. On the way out, we stopped helping Pakistan in a key way: We ended security and economic assistance because of its nuclear weapons program, something we’d exempted before.

“So Pakistan, in its own narrative, went from being the most allied of allies to the most sanctioned of adversaries. That is why Pakistan threw its support to the Taliban when they started gaining ground in the 1990s: It could end a dangerous conflict along Pakistan’s own unstable borders.

“And that is why a decade later after 9/11, Pakistan welcomed the return of the United States — and U.S. assistance. It would work with the US against Al Qaeda.

“But we soon learned that the Taliban were a sticky matter. I was ambassador to Pakistan from 2004 to 2007. I pushed Pakistani officials repeatedly on the need to deny the Taliban safe havens. The answer I got back over time went like this: “We know you. We know you don’t have patience for the long fight. We know the day will come when you just get tired and go home — it’s what you do. But we aren’t going anywhere — this is where we live. So if you think we are going to turn the Taliban into a mortal enemy, you are completely crazy.”

“We have again validated their skepticism.

“The Washington Post notes that ‘as the Taliban swept across neighboring Afghanistan, some Pakistanis saw it as a reason to celebrate’.” Yet I doubt there are many high fives being exchanged in Islamabad today. The American disaster in Afghanistan that Mr. Biden’s impatience brought about is not a disaster just for us. It has also been a huge boost for the Taliban, whose narrative now is that the believers, clad in the armor of the one true faith, have vanquished the infidels….

“We need to be engaged with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with this enhanced threat. The prospect of violent destabilization of a country with about 210 million people and nuclear weapons is not a pretty one. The same is true in Iran. It’s always good to see the Great Satan take a kick in the face, and it’s worth a little gloating, but the Islamic Republic and the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate almost went to war in 1998. A region is worried, and it is right to be so.”

like we will listen.....

 

[PradoTLC]

Former US diplomat urges Washington to engage with Pakistan on crisis in Afghanistan

Mon, 23 Aug 2021

View attachment 772514

Former US diplomat to Afghanistan, Pakistan Ryan Crocker


NEW YORK, Aug 23 (APP) : A veteran US diplomat has called on the Biden administration to engage with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with the unfolding situation in Afghanistan, saying that the “American disaster” in the war-torn country was the result of President Joe Biden’s impatience.

Ryan Crocker, who served as ambassador to Afghanistan and later to Pakistan, wrote in The New York Times that that Biden’s “strategic impatience”, which he said Americans lack, has given a huge boost to the Taliban as well as to “militant Islam” everywhere.

In an opinion piece, Crocker said that the effect of that development would also be felt next door in Pakistan where the T.T.P. has been engaged in attacking targets inside Pakistan. However, a VOA report, quoting highly placed sources, said that a high-powered commission, set up by Afghanistan’s Taliban, has been working to press anti-Pakistan militants to stop violence against the neighbouring country and return to their homes across the border with their families.

Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada set up the three-member commission recently to look into Islamabad’s complaints that the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is using Afghan soil to plot cross-border terrorist attacks, the sources were cited as saying.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also told the media in Kabul that no terrorist group will be allowed to use the Afghan soil against any country.

In his article, Crocker wrote (in part):

“I recall the comment attributed to a captured Taliban fighter from a number of years ago: You Americans have the watches, but we have the time. Sadly that view proved accurate — the Taliban outlasted us and our impatience.

“After the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan at the hands of U.S.-trained and armed mujahedeen in 1989, training that was facilitated by Pakistan, we decided we were done. We could see the Afghan civil war coming — the only thing holding the disparate Afghan groups together was a common enemy. But that was not our problem — we were leaving. On the way out, we stopped helping Pakistan in a key way: We ended security and economic assistance because of its nuclear weapons program, something we’d exempted before.

“So Pakistan, in its own narrative, went from being the most allied of allies to the most sanctioned of adversaries. That is why Pakistan threw its support to the Taliban when they started gaining ground in the 1990s: It could end a dangerous conflict along Pakistan’s own unstable borders.

“And that is why a decade later after 9/11, Pakistan welcomed the return of the United States — and U.S. assistance. It would work with the US against Al Qaeda.

“But we soon learned that the Taliban were a sticky matter. I was ambassador to Pakistan from 2004 to 2007. I pushed Pakistani officials repeatedly on the need to deny the Taliban safe havens. The answer I got back over time went like this: “We know you. We know you don’t have patience for the long fight. We know the day will come when you just get tired and go home — it’s what you do. But we aren’t going anywhere — this is where we live. So if you think we are going to turn the Taliban into a mortal enemy, you are completely crazy.”

“We have again validated their skepticism.

“The Washington Post notes that ‘as the Taliban swept across neighboring Afghanistan, some Pakistanis saw it as a reason to celebrate’.” Yet I doubt there are many high fives being exchanged in Islamabad today. The American disaster in Afghanistan that Mr. Biden’s impatience brought about is not a disaster just for us. It has also been a huge boost for the Taliban, whose narrative now is that the believers, clad in the armor of the one true faith, have vanquished the infidels….

“We need to be engaged with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with this enhanced threat. The prospect of violent destabilization of a country with about 210 million people and nuclear weapons is not a pretty one. The same is true in Iran. It’s always good to see the Great Satan take a kick in the face, and it’s worth a little gloating, but the Islamic Republic and the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate almost went to war in 1998. A region is worried, and it is right to be so.”

Sure Mr Cocker... we can be your friend.

but here is our invoice to paid 100% in advance

- 200 F-35
- force india to accept UN resolultion on Kashmir
- Grants of $10B a year for 15 years (to compensate $150B lost to our economy)
- Remove all sanctions
- force UK to hand over all the thiefs who did money laundering and corruption hiding in west and US



after that we will be friends and make a song .....Dil Dil Americka

 

[kingQamaR]

they will screw you again Pakistan, soon as our help is no longer needed in Afghanistan when there mess is fixed. They blame us for there gigantic loss! Pm Khan, of none interfering is the right policy. USA will never get Pm Khan to repeat the same mistakes what our previous cowards did doing bidding for USA Interests only

 

[VCheng]

“We need to be engaged with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with this enhanced threat. The prospect of violent destabilization of a country with about 210 million people and nuclear weapons is not a pretty one.

And both countries are indeed engaged in that process, as NSA Moe's repeated trips to USA indicate. I remain sure that a co-operative way forward will be found soon enough.

 

[cloud4000]

And both countries are indeed engaged in that process, as NSA Moe's repeated trips to USA indicate. I remain sure that a co-operative way forward will be found soon enough.

Realistically, yes. But the way some are talking on this thread, Pakistan is in a position that it can dictate demands on the US. How has Pakistan changed in one week? It hasn’t.