America's War, Not Ours
By by Ahmed Quraishi
02/10/09 "The
News" -- -- 9/30/2008 -- A little noticed but
major flaw in the Pakistan-US partnership in the war on
terror is leading Pakistani policymakers and public opinion
to make a serious error in judgment that could devastate
Pakistan's stability and leave us looking like another close
U.S. ally: Iraq.
This error in judgment is simple but easily overlooked:
Pakistan did not take part in occupying Afghanistan. The war
to sustain that occupation and prolong it is not Pakistan's
war. It never was. For President Zardari's government to
'own' this war at US behest is not only illogical but it
also shifts the responsibility of stabilizing Afghanistan
onto Pakistan's shoulders. In a worst case scenario, if
anything goes wrong, this 'Pakistani ownership' can and will
be used later to force a variety of foreign military
interventions in Pakistan, as part of the war on terror or
to protect our allegedly endangered nukes. This is why
Islamabad needs to officially leave the coalition that
occupies Afghanistan and squarely pin the responsibility for
Afghanistan on the US.
This delineation is important because the Pakistani war is
limited to our border regions and against criminal groups
masquerading as the 'Pakistani Taliban'. It is not
Pakistan's war or responsibility to stamp out the Afghan
opposition and resistance groups that thrive inside
Afghanistan and may sometimes enter Pakistani territory to
seek support from tribes with whom they share ethnicity. It
is not our responsibility that Washington and its puppet
Karzai regime have failed or are unwilling to bring the
disgruntled Afghans on board and end the civil war.
The question of alleged support from Pakistan to the Afghan
Taliban, the 'sanctuaries', and the 'rogue intelligence'
theory is all secondary if Washington decides today to talk
to Afghan opposition groups, including the Afghan Taliban,
and offers them a share in ruling their country. If this
happens, the question of Pakistani support for Afghan
insurgency will become obsolete since there will be no
insurgency to support. This is the crux: reconciliation in
Afghanistan will end the Afghan opposition's need for
sanctuaries anywhere. What is happening right now is that Mr
Karzai and the former Northern Alliance are refusing to
bring Afghan opposition on board and instead are pushing US
to a war with Pakistan to settle old scores.
Eliminating Afghan resistance could have become "Pakistan's
war" if our American friends, after taking over Kabul,
accommodated their Pakistani ally's legitimate interests in
Afghanistan, understood Islamabad's valid strategic
concerns, and rewarded it for taking a difficult decision:
ditching an ally in Kabul in a country that remained hostile
throughout the Cold War.
What ultimately happened is that everyone in the region was
allowed a bite of the Afghan pie except Pakistan. Almost all
major players – US, NATO, Iran, India, and others – were
allowed to secure their interests except Islamabad. Pakistan
could have swallowed this insult if Washington kept
Afghanistan to itself, but the reality is that the Bush
White House ceded crucial space in Afghanistan to India,
while keeping Pakistan out. Even mildly Pakistan-friendly
Afghanistan elements were not accepted in the power
structure in Kabul. And now Afghan soil is being used by
third parties to export terrorism into Pakistan and
destabilize the country. If this American lapse was
unintentional, then it shows US ineptitude. But
circumstantial evidence indicates that Pakistan was probably
part of the expanded US agenda following 9/11, which
included invading Iraq, toppling the regimes of Syria and
Iran and redrawing the map of the wider Middle East,
including Pakistan.
Instead of taking on a nuclear Pakistan head on, we were
effectively used to occupy Afghanistan and then gradually,
starting 2004, the noose was tightened around us. It began
with the nuclear proliferation issue and then moved on to a
new threat, the safety of our nukes. Interestingly, the
'Pakistan-is-another-Iraq' theory and the nuclear scare were
both exclusively started and hyped by the US media, with
dramatic pressure-building tactics similar to what was done
in the run up to Iraq invasion.
For the growing chorus in the liberal sections of the
Pakistani media that wants to 'own' this war, we must
understand this: the occupation of Afghanistan and the
elimination of Afghan resistance groups is not Pakistan's
war. Our war is limited to the insurgencies raging from
Gwadar to the Chinese border with partial malicious support
from the Afghan soil. This war can be won. Making Pakistan
'own' America's war in Afghanistan and shifting to it to our
tribal belt will exacerbate the insurgencies and could
destabilize Pakistan beyond the point of return.
The writer works for Geo TV. - Email:
aq@ahmedquraishi.com
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