Tuesday July 14, 2009
During the Cold War, Pakistan stood aside USA as its most allied ally while India stood in the opposite camp with Soviet Union and opposed American policies. When the time came to reward Pakistan for its consistent loyalty to the US, it was left in a lurch and India was befriended.
From the time USA embraced India in 1990; it has adopted a highly discriminatory and aggressive posture against Pakistan. The US has been threatening Pakistan since early 1990s on various accounts. The decade of 1990 started with USA ditching Pakistan after serving its objectives in Afghanistan. Pakistan was put under economic and military sanctions through infamous Pressler Amendment. At the behest of India, it accused Pakistan of nuclear proliferation and cross border terrorism in Kashmir and placed it on the watch list of terrorist states. Its response to Kashmir dispute tilted towards India.
Throughout the nineties, Indo-US cooperation in the fields of economy and military kept expanding. This period also witnessed growth of Indo-Israeli cooperation in various fields including nuclear. Several defence deals were inked by India to procure most sophisticated weaponry and technology from Tel Aviv. After nuclear tests of India in May 1998, Bill Clinton threatened Pakistan of dire consequences if it also gave a tit for tat response. When Pakistan went ahead with its nuclear tests it was put under further sanctions. On his visit to New Delhi in March 2000 Clinton signed tens of high profile economic and military deals and declared that Indo-US strategic relationship had blossomed. His behaviour with Pakistan was however highly belligerent and degrading.
When 9/11 occurred and US badly needed the support of Pakistan to achieve its objectives in this region, everyone felt that Pak-US relationship was out of the dark patch and Pakistans bad days were over. Such optimistic feelings received a fillip when its economy started to upturn and Pakistan became a centre of attraction for the western world. US leaders repeatedly assured Pakistan that the US would build a new kind of lasting relationship with Pakistan based on people to people friendship and would endeavour to remove its grievances against Washington. Musharraf and leaders of Kings Party were so overwhelmed and blinded with US generosities that they refused to pay any attention to some saner voices about insidious track record of USA towards Pakistan. When I questioned Gen Musharraf in 2004 in a high profile gathering about Pakistan foreign policy being too US centric, he could not give me a convincing answer but assured the audience that Pakistan knew where to draw a line. On ground, no lines were drawn and an open cheque was given to USA to intrude into our affairs without any inhibitions. Our leaders remained in a state of delirium even when USA began to arm-twist Pakistan on matters relating to US war on terror and brazenly meddled into our domestic affairs. Their sole interest lay in remaining in power for as long as possible.
Under the garb of friendship, George W. Bush twisted the arm of Gen Musharraf and made him change Pakistans Afghan policy. This unscrupulous U-turn at the cost of a Muslim neighbour was hailed by all and sundry under the pretext that had he not done so Pakistan would have been reduced to ruins. They nurtured the false hope that closeness with USA would upsurge the economic fortunes of Pakistan and change its destiny. After occupying Afghanistan with the active assistance of Pakistan and pushing militants towards Pakistans tribal belt, Pakistan was again coerced by Bush to move its forces into South Waziristan failing which US forces would step in. It was again pushed to expand the scope of war on terror by opening another front In North Waziristan.
India was given a green signal to mobilise its forces and carryout offensive deployment all along the border in December 2002 at a time when Pakistani 70,000 troops were tied along the western border. This distraction was necessary to force Pakistan to get after Jihadi organisations, forget about Kashmir, open farcical composite dialogue with India to lull the senses of leadership and get wholly distracted towards eastern border to enable CIA-RAW-Mossad sponsored agents to infiltrate into intended trouble spots of Balochistan and Fata; allowing CIA and FBI to establish its outposts in areas of interests and to cultivate its lackeys in each govt dept. Once the US succeeded in flaring up Balochistan and Fata and shifting centre of gravity of terrorism from Afghanistan into Pakistan, it started singing the nauseating mantra of do more and also pasting multiple charges on Pakistan ranging from extremism to cross border terrorism and nuclear proliferation and linkage of ISI and the army with extremists. From July 2008 onwards US stance became more antagonistic and threatening. Its military commanders as well as presidential hopefuls fought their election campaign on the plank of Pakistan bashing. Fata and nuclear program figured high on their agenda. Pakistan was repeatedly warned that US forces would barge into Fata to get hold of senior leadership of Al-Qaeda including Osama. War games were held and various contingency plans brainstormed how to secure Pak nukes. Visits of US officials to Pakistan became very frequent and they became highly meddlesome.
After over seven years of so-called friendship with USA, Pakistan has lost on all counts. The US war on terror, which is now being referred to as Pakistans war has rendered our economy more fragile. So far we have lost over $35 billion. The whole country is engulfed in the flames of militancy. Insurgency in Balochistan has taken the shape of ethnic war and Punjabis are being gunned down to force them to leave the province. Talk of separation has gained currency and insurgency is being portrayed as freedom struggle. Baloch nationalists are demanding rights of self determination. Karachi is also drenched in ethnic war and target killings of political opponents have become a norm. Fata and greater part of NWFP is up in arms. Foreign sponsored militants have entrenched themselves on almost all mountainous regions of seven tribal agencies, Swat, Darra and some other settled areas. Lahore has been repeatedly attacked by RAW trained terrorists to destabilise the heartland of Punjab. Efforts are in hand to ignite southern Punjab wherefrom sizeable number has joined the Tehrik-e-Taliban. The society as a whole stands polarised while the poor segment of society groans under back breaking inflation, price spiral, load shedding and lack of justice. The rulers and the elites with feudalistic mindset are insensitive to the miseries of the downtrodden masses and remain drenched in the pool of opulence. They seemed to be least bothered about the precarious internal and external security situation and continue to place their entire trust in untrustworthy USA. Do more mantra; wild accusations and continuous violation of our air space by drones have given Pakistan a headache which has now turned into a migraine.
The army is fully engaged in defeating the militants on multiple fronts at the cost of losses in men and material. Our strategic reserves are depleting and wear and tear of our weapons and equipment is also taking place. India and the US want Pak army to get overstretched and over committed in north-western regions, get fatigued and demoralised. It wants its weapons to get eroded and reserve stocks of spare parts and ammunition to get depleted. It is particularly interested in erosion of barrel life of US supplied medium and heavy artillery guns, tanks main guns, guns mounted on gunship helicopters and F-16s. In short, it wants that army and air force war stamina should dwindle so that when the crunch time comes the two services are incapable of defending international borders and the sky. In conclusion one can say that friendship with USA instead of proving beneficial has always been injurious and costly.
During the Cold War, Pakistan stood aside USA as its most allied ally while India stood in the opposite camp with Soviet Union and opposed American policies. When the time came to reward Pakistan for its consistent loyalty to the US, it was left in a lurch and India was befriended.
From the time USA embraced India in 1990; it has adopted a highly discriminatory and aggressive posture against Pakistan. The US has been threatening Pakistan since early 1990s on various accounts. The decade of 1990 started with USA ditching Pakistan after serving its objectives in Afghanistan. Pakistan was put under economic and military sanctions through infamous Pressler Amendment. At the behest of India, it accused Pakistan of nuclear proliferation and cross border terrorism in Kashmir and placed it on the watch list of terrorist states. Its response to Kashmir dispute tilted towards India.
Throughout the nineties, Indo-US cooperation in the fields of economy and military kept expanding. This period also witnessed growth of Indo-Israeli cooperation in various fields including nuclear. Several defence deals were inked by India to procure most sophisticated weaponry and technology from Tel Aviv. After nuclear tests of India in May 1998, Bill Clinton threatened Pakistan of dire consequences if it also gave a tit for tat response. When Pakistan went ahead with its nuclear tests it was put under further sanctions. On his visit to New Delhi in March 2000 Clinton signed tens of high profile economic and military deals and declared that Indo-US strategic relationship had blossomed. His behaviour with Pakistan was however highly belligerent and degrading.
When 9/11 occurred and US badly needed the support of Pakistan to achieve its objectives in this region, everyone felt that Pak-US relationship was out of the dark patch and Pakistans bad days were over. Such optimistic feelings received a fillip when its economy started to upturn and Pakistan became a centre of attraction for the western world. US leaders repeatedly assured Pakistan that the US would build a new kind of lasting relationship with Pakistan based on people to people friendship and would endeavour to remove its grievances against Washington. Musharraf and leaders of Kings Party were so overwhelmed and blinded with US generosities that they refused to pay any attention to some saner voices about insidious track record of USA towards Pakistan. When I questioned Gen Musharraf in 2004 in a high profile gathering about Pakistan foreign policy being too US centric, he could not give me a convincing answer but assured the audience that Pakistan knew where to draw a line. On ground, no lines were drawn and an open cheque was given to USA to intrude into our affairs without any inhibitions. Our leaders remained in a state of delirium even when USA began to arm-twist Pakistan on matters relating to US war on terror and brazenly meddled into our domestic affairs. Their sole interest lay in remaining in power for as long as possible.
Under the garb of friendship, George W. Bush twisted the arm of Gen Musharraf and made him change Pakistans Afghan policy. This unscrupulous U-turn at the cost of a Muslim neighbour was hailed by all and sundry under the pretext that had he not done so Pakistan would have been reduced to ruins. They nurtured the false hope that closeness with USA would upsurge the economic fortunes of Pakistan and change its destiny. After occupying Afghanistan with the active assistance of Pakistan and pushing militants towards Pakistans tribal belt, Pakistan was again coerced by Bush to move its forces into South Waziristan failing which US forces would step in. It was again pushed to expand the scope of war on terror by opening another front In North Waziristan.
India was given a green signal to mobilise its forces and carryout offensive deployment all along the border in December 2002 at a time when Pakistani 70,000 troops were tied along the western border. This distraction was necessary to force Pakistan to get after Jihadi organisations, forget about Kashmir, open farcical composite dialogue with India to lull the senses of leadership and get wholly distracted towards eastern border to enable CIA-RAW-Mossad sponsored agents to infiltrate into intended trouble spots of Balochistan and Fata; allowing CIA and FBI to establish its outposts in areas of interests and to cultivate its lackeys in each govt dept. Once the US succeeded in flaring up Balochistan and Fata and shifting centre of gravity of terrorism from Afghanistan into Pakistan, it started singing the nauseating mantra of do more and also pasting multiple charges on Pakistan ranging from extremism to cross border terrorism and nuclear proliferation and linkage of ISI and the army with extremists. From July 2008 onwards US stance became more antagonistic and threatening. Its military commanders as well as presidential hopefuls fought their election campaign on the plank of Pakistan bashing. Fata and nuclear program figured high on their agenda. Pakistan was repeatedly warned that US forces would barge into Fata to get hold of senior leadership of Al-Qaeda including Osama. War games were held and various contingency plans brainstormed how to secure Pak nukes. Visits of US officials to Pakistan became very frequent and they became highly meddlesome.
After over seven years of so-called friendship with USA, Pakistan has lost on all counts. The US war on terror, which is now being referred to as Pakistans war has rendered our economy more fragile. So far we have lost over $35 billion. The whole country is engulfed in the flames of militancy. Insurgency in Balochistan has taken the shape of ethnic war and Punjabis are being gunned down to force them to leave the province. Talk of separation has gained currency and insurgency is being portrayed as freedom struggle. Baloch nationalists are demanding rights of self determination. Karachi is also drenched in ethnic war and target killings of political opponents have become a norm. Fata and greater part of NWFP is up in arms. Foreign sponsored militants have entrenched themselves on almost all mountainous regions of seven tribal agencies, Swat, Darra and some other settled areas. Lahore has been repeatedly attacked by RAW trained terrorists to destabilise the heartland of Punjab. Efforts are in hand to ignite southern Punjab wherefrom sizeable number has joined the Tehrik-e-Taliban. The society as a whole stands polarised while the poor segment of society groans under back breaking inflation, price spiral, load shedding and lack of justice. The rulers and the elites with feudalistic mindset are insensitive to the miseries of the downtrodden masses and remain drenched in the pool of opulence. They seemed to be least bothered about the precarious internal and external security situation and continue to place their entire trust in untrustworthy USA. Do more mantra; wild accusations and continuous violation of our air space by drones have given Pakistan a headache which has now turned into a migraine.
The army is fully engaged in defeating the militants on multiple fronts at the cost of losses in men and material. Our strategic reserves are depleting and wear and tear of our weapons and equipment is also taking place. India and the US want Pak army to get overstretched and over committed in north-western regions, get fatigued and demoralised. It wants its weapons to get eroded and reserve stocks of spare parts and ammunition to get depleted. It is particularly interested in erosion of barrel life of US supplied medium and heavy artillery guns, tanks main guns, guns mounted on gunship helicopters and F-16s. In short, it wants that army and air force war stamina should dwindle so that when the crunch time comes the two services are incapable of defending international borders and the sky. In conclusion one can say that friendship with USA instead of proving beneficial has always been injurious and costly.
