Posted on 10/07/2011 9:12:13 PM PDT by Clive
In the world of diplomacy, uttering words of caution on a troubled relationship with another state is pretty much raising a red-flag warning of impending or ongoing conflict.
This is what retiring Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, did in his final appearance on Sept. 22 with the Senate Armed Services Committee in describing America’s bizarre relationship with Pakistan.
In a carefully crafted public statement before U.S. senators, Mullen said, “Extremist organizations serving as proxies of the government of Pakistan are attacking Afghan troops and civilians as well as U.S. soldiers.”
Then Mullen made the chilling observation: “We believe the Haqqani Network — which has long enjoyed the support and protection of the Pakistani government and is, in many ways, a strategic arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence Agency — is responsible for the Sept. 13 attacks against the U.S. embassy in Kabul.”
Those who have seriously studied the history, culture and politics of Pakistan, as I have done — full disclosure, my doctoral dissertation was on Pakistan and its failure in making the transition from a feudal society to a modern democratic state — is aware that from its origin resulting from a religious-based claim to partition undivided India, the country was a rogue state in the making.
Through the Cold War years, the U.S. turned a blind eye to Pakistan run by military dictators and a cabal of feudal lords. This was the Faustian bargain to maintain alliance with Pakistan as strategic real estate.
It mattered little to Washington — or London and Ottawa — whether this rogue state pushed for war with its neighbour (India), had its own population slaughtered or made into refugees (Bangladesh), oppressed ethnic minorities (Baluchis), persecuted religious minorities (Christians), promoted fanatics (Muslim fundamentalists), terrorized women (implementing Sharia), or was unable to feed its growing population while proceeding to build nuclear weapons.
Once the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, Pakistan became the staging ground for the war that followed. The decade-long war not only turned Afghanistan into a graveyard for Moscow, it also made this landlocked country into the cradle of Taliban, al-Qaida and the worst excesses of Muslim fanaticism.
Pakistan has been in the thick of this. Its people obsessed with India, its military-political and intellectual elite driven by envy and resentment over India’s relative success as the world’s largest democracy and its rapidly growing economy, Pakistan became a Muslim version of North Korea. From aiding and hiding al-Qaida’s leaders to arming, supporting and instructing Taliban fighters, Pakistan is in effect an objective enemy of the U.S. and the West.
Mullen’s guarded words were meant, if understood properly, to publicly lift the veil on a relationship with a country that cheers the murder of U.S. citizens. Pakistan’s rulers believe they can defy the U.S. so long as they enjoy the strategic embrace of Communist China, and the vital flow of petro dollars from the Gulf states — particularly the financial support of Saudi Arabia — remains unimpeded.
Moreover, a majority of Pakistanis are sold on the idea of being the vanguard nation of Allah armed with nuclear weapons. The peril from Pakistan is undeniable, and the West needs to acknowledge this urgently.
Salim Mansur ping.
“...Pakistan became a Muslim version of North Korea. From aiding and hiding al-Qaida’s leaders to arming, supporting and instructing Taliban fighters, Pakistan is in effect an objective enemy of the U.S. and the West.”
Pakistan has always been a wolf in sheeps clothing
The reality is the fact that they are also a nuclear power , and they have always envied the prosperity of thier neighbor ,India.
Pakistan has drawn even closer to the Red Chinese since the knowledge that the ISI used the Haqqudi as an an extension of Pakistan’s Intelligence unit.
This is a “no win” situation .
The underlying rationale for the U.S. remaining in Afghanistan has been to protect Pakistan and its nuclear weapons. Obviously this position has to be rethought—maybe from inside the Indian border.
That will be a fatal conceit if they push it. If they think they can stab at the West, protected by nuclear weapons, Saudi money, and a deep double game of onion-layered deceit and deception, they will end up as fried onion rings. Their fantasy will be their death sentence.
And maybe from inside the flaming ruins of Islamabad.
China will say “Hands off or else”. We must bow to China or perish.
Nice summary.
The short version is, “how absurd was it to allow the creation, out of India, of a state whose premise was government by Islam?”
My first post on 9/12/01 was, “I presume Bush will be arriving in New Delhi by next week”.
Really? What effect do you think a state of war would have on all that U.S. debt the Chinese hold? What do you think the U.S. Treasury would do about it?
A major contest between China and the U.S. -- how do you think it would go? Do you think we would lose? (Yes, we'd lose a lot. Lots of dead, lots of destruction.) Or do you think it would result in China's being reduced to her former circumstances of, say, 900 years ago?
Thanks.
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