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We (the US) are creating a big problem for India... we have created a monster on steroids in Pakistan
Thu, Feb 4 05:55 AM
He is a self-confessed Indophile and the eponymous Pressler Amendment is not the only symbol of that. But these days, former US Senator Larry Pressler is disappointed and saddened over what he says is New Delhi not speaking up against the mistakes Washington is making in South Asia.
Recent US decisions such as ordering more troops to Afghanistan, continuing to pump billions of dollars worth military and development aid to Pakistan, entering into arms deals with India are perfect recipes for instability in the subcontinent, he says, and adds that he is puzzled why the Manmohan Singh government has not seen through this.
"I have been disappointed in India not raising a voice about what's happening in Afghanistan, what a mistake we are probably making," Pressler, who was in India on a speaking tour, told The Indian Express. "We are creating a big problem for India because at the end of the day India is going to have on its border a highly armed loose canon in Pakistan, a rogue state whose government is not what we espouse or support. A rogue Pakistan on steroids of US money," he said.
While that may sound like an anti-Pakistani rant from a hawk in the strategic affairs community, Pressler is not just another armchair expert talking glib. The first Vietnam veteran to be elected to the US Senate, the Republican politician from South Dakota was also a US Foreign Service officer before serving as a Congressman for 22 years until 1997.
As the Chairman of the Senate Arms Control Subcommittee in the early 1980s, he says he and some colleagues saw the danger of surging aid and arms exports to Pakistan. This resulted in the Pressler Amendment of 1985 which required the US President to certify that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear weapon, failing which significant US aid to the country would be curtailed.
The amendment was invoked by President George Bush Senior after the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1989, hurting Islamabad until Bill Clinton repealed it in 1998. Among other big ticket items that were blocked due to this were 28 F-16 fighter jets that Pakistan had already paid for, a decision that caused much heartburn in Islamabad for years.
Now a lawyer, teacher and speaker on the global conference circuit, Pressler, 67, is writing his autobiography, expected to be released this year, and also a smaller book on how he foresees the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan unfold in the short term. And his gut feeling, he says, is not optimistic.
"I don't believe we can win in Afghanistan, whatever that means, because nobody is going to stand and fight this highly technical army but they are just going to move aside until we leave," he said. "We are going to be in Afghanistan for three or five years, declare victories, and they'll be killing some people and so forth and vice-versa, then we'll decide to come home."
"But at that point, what have we left behind? We would have created a monster on steroids in Pakistan because we've made such sweeping enhancements of their equipment and long range bilateral promises. We are making 20-year commitments on weapon systems and so forth. I don't think the Pakistanis give a hoot about the Taliban. They are worried about India," Pressler fires away, no holds barred.
But that is not his only disappointment. A traditional Republican who counts Senator John McCain and Bill Clinton among his friends, Pressler said he changed his loyalties and was among the 'Republicans for Obama', and "very painfully for the first time voted for a Democrat for President", hoping that he would reduce American military activity. In return, Obama appointed Pressler Commissioner for the Preservation of American Heritage Abroad.
One year on, Pressler says he feels let down by Obama's policies. "I am certainly not a disarmament guy completely but I have been so disappointed in Barack Obama," he said. "I was hoping he would lessen military activity in Afghanistan and elsewhere but he has not and he has completely reversed himself. In many ways his administration has so many more generals, his National Security Adviser is a general, maybe our national security state is so strong that he can't do anything else."
Pressler's final words though, are reserved for India, a country to which he has made dozens of trips, including as an independent director on the board of software giant Infosys until three years ago. A photograph of him shaking hands with Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he came to India as a member of President Clinton's entourage in 2000 occupies a special place on Pressler's website.
While the US and the UK could be blamed for the mess in Afghanistan and Pakistan, "the leaders of India have got to be speaking up more. It seems as though they have kind of subdued their voices because they are getting this nuclear deal and all these arms and there is this special relationship," he said. "Having a close relationship between democracies does not mean you agree on everything. And there should be some robust disagreements occasionally. I hope that the Prime Minster of India speaks out on these matters publicly more and he can remain just as close to the US and so do we," he added.
Thu, Feb 4 05:55 AM
He is a self-confessed Indophile and the eponymous Pressler Amendment is not the only symbol of that. But these days, former US Senator Larry Pressler is disappointed and saddened over what he says is New Delhi not speaking up against the mistakes Washington is making in South Asia.
Recent US decisions such as ordering more troops to Afghanistan, continuing to pump billions of dollars worth military and development aid to Pakistan, entering into arms deals with India are perfect recipes for instability in the subcontinent, he says, and adds that he is puzzled why the Manmohan Singh government has not seen through this.
"I have been disappointed in India not raising a voice about what's happening in Afghanistan, what a mistake we are probably making," Pressler, who was in India on a speaking tour, told The Indian Express. "We are creating a big problem for India because at the end of the day India is going to have on its border a highly armed loose canon in Pakistan, a rogue state whose government is not what we espouse or support. A rogue Pakistan on steroids of US money," he said.
While that may sound like an anti-Pakistani rant from a hawk in the strategic affairs community, Pressler is not just another armchair expert talking glib. The first Vietnam veteran to be elected to the US Senate, the Republican politician from South Dakota was also a US Foreign Service officer before serving as a Congressman for 22 years until 1997.
As the Chairman of the Senate Arms Control Subcommittee in the early 1980s, he says he and some colleagues saw the danger of surging aid and arms exports to Pakistan. This resulted in the Pressler Amendment of 1985 which required the US President to certify that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear weapon, failing which significant US aid to the country would be curtailed.
The amendment was invoked by President George Bush Senior after the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1989, hurting Islamabad until Bill Clinton repealed it in 1998. Among other big ticket items that were blocked due to this were 28 F-16 fighter jets that Pakistan had already paid for, a decision that caused much heartburn in Islamabad for years.
Now a lawyer, teacher and speaker on the global conference circuit, Pressler, 67, is writing his autobiography, expected to be released this year, and also a smaller book on how he foresees the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan unfold in the short term. And his gut feeling, he says, is not optimistic.
"I don't believe we can win in Afghanistan, whatever that means, because nobody is going to stand and fight this highly technical army but they are just going to move aside until we leave," he said. "We are going to be in Afghanistan for three or five years, declare victories, and they'll be killing some people and so forth and vice-versa, then we'll decide to come home."
"But at that point, what have we left behind? We would have created a monster on steroids in Pakistan because we've made such sweeping enhancements of their equipment and long range bilateral promises. We are making 20-year commitments on weapon systems and so forth. I don't think the Pakistanis give a hoot about the Taliban. They are worried about India," Pressler fires away, no holds barred.
But that is not his only disappointment. A traditional Republican who counts Senator John McCain and Bill Clinton among his friends, Pressler said he changed his loyalties and was among the 'Republicans for Obama', and "very painfully for the first time voted for a Democrat for President", hoping that he would reduce American military activity. In return, Obama appointed Pressler Commissioner for the Preservation of American Heritage Abroad.
One year on, Pressler says he feels let down by Obama's policies. "I am certainly not a disarmament guy completely but I have been so disappointed in Barack Obama," he said. "I was hoping he would lessen military activity in Afghanistan and elsewhere but he has not and he has completely reversed himself. In many ways his administration has so many more generals, his National Security Adviser is a general, maybe our national security state is so strong that he can't do anything else."
Pressler's final words though, are reserved for India, a country to which he has made dozens of trips, including as an independent director on the board of software giant Infosys until three years ago. A photograph of him shaking hands with Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he came to India as a member of President Clinton's entourage in 2000 occupies a special place on Pressler's website.
While the US and the UK could be blamed for the mess in Afghanistan and Pakistan, "the leaders of India have got to be speaking up more. It seems as though they have kind of subdued their voices because they are getting this nuclear deal and all these arms and there is this special relationship," he said. "Having a close relationship between democracies does not mean you agree on everything. And there should be some robust disagreements occasionally. I hope that the Prime Minster of India speaks out on these matters publicly more and he can remain just as close to the US and so do we," he added.
