Pakistan's new hate list

A recent Pew poll has shown that despite the best of
efforts, the US is still widely reviled in Pakistan.
India is the next most despised.

Pakistanis are becoming lyrical about their relations
with the US which are on their lowest note ever. They hum
two songs: Money Can't Buy You Love; and Who's Sorry Now,
referring to their troubled transactional ties including
the ongoing dead-locked cost of transportation of
logistics to Afghanistan; and the US attack on a
Pakistani frontier post. Pakistan is demanding an apology
for the martyrdom of 24 of its soldiers, end to drone
strikes, enhanced transportation costs for supplies —
conditions set by a parliamentary committee for renewal
of relations with the US. Pakistan is also saying that
the US's war on terrorism has cost it $68 billion and
40,000 lives and that Pakistan is being made a scapegoat
for Nato's failures in Afghanistan.

On the sidelines of the Securing Asia conference last
week in London, a US scholar said Pakistan "is the only
ally we are bombing". He added that former Chairman,
Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, who boasted
about 27 visits to Pakistan, had unduly pampered the
Pakistan Army. At the same conference, former UK Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw said that soon after the attack on
Indian Parliament in 2001, he told the British Parliament
that Pakistan should be declared a state that sponsors
terrorism. He added that 80 per cent of all attacks
planned or perpetrated in the UK were sourced to
Pakistan. The buzz during the conference was: "No one
trusts Pakistan any more, not even the Chinese. And the
list includes Iran, Russia, Central African Republic,
Afghanistan and India".

Pakistani analysts sing praises of their Army and laud
the brilliance of the two big operations in Swat and
South Waziristan. The ISI is praised for busting 28
international terrorist networks and for its help to the
US in crippling the Al Qaeda network. It has also
contained the Pakistan Taliban, some of whom have taken
sanctuary across the Durand Line in Afghanistan. This has
led to unending acrimony with the Afghan security forces
and there is regular exchange of complaints of border
violations.

Pakistan is in an unenviable state, plagued with
political instability, economic woes including huge
fiscal deficit, crippling power shortages and unrelenting
terrorism of all hues. A former Chief Secretary of the
tribal areas compared Pakistan to the lawless FATA. A
recent Pew Research Global Attitude Project 2012
indicates that three out of four Pakistanis view the US
as enemy, about the same number view India unfavourably
and six of ten Pakistanis consider India a bigger threat
than the Taliban or Al Qaeda.

The US has for long unsuccessfully demanded that Pakistan
close down sanctuaries provided to the Haqqani network in
North Waziristan and the Afghan Taliban in Quetta,
Peshawar and Karachi.

The Pakistani Army has been fixated on strategic depth in
Afghanistan by which it means having a pliable Government
in Kabul. Not everyone agrees with this outdated concept
which is an infringement of Afghan sovereignty.
Admittedly Pakistan has to cope with unsettled borders
both in the east and the west, a predicament it did not
face pre-9/11 when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. It
justifies sanctuaries to the Taliban as legitimate
resistance to the presence of foreign troops in
Afghanistan and covets Taliban as its instrument —
strategic asset — for acquiring strategic depth once
foreign forces withdraw in 2014. It is most unlikely that
Pakistan Army will abandon its core assets: The Afghan
Taliban and in the East, the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba.

Recently, Major General Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmad, the Director
General of Military Operations in Islamabad, held a
conference for the first time, inviting civilian
scholars, strategists and journalists, to mull over
Pakistan's post-2014 options in Afghanistan. Inside the
Army questions are being asked about Chief of Army Staff
General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani's post-2013 — when he
retires after one extension and six years — intentions.
Lieutenant General Tariq Khan, 1 Corps Commander,
currently officiating GoC Central Command, who led the
operations in Swat is being tipped as the next COAS. But
all that will depend on elections and the political
transition in Pakistan.

The Pew Poll has given the new rising star of Pakistan,
Mr Imran Khan, a 72 per cent rating. His populist agenda
is to confront the US like Iran has done and end
corruption in 90 days. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party
keeps company with banned terrorist groups and he shares
a seat with the Defence of Pakistan Council which has
India-baiter Hafiz Saeed as its leading light. There are
two imponderables: Whether Mr Khan's 72 per cent ratings
will convert into an electoral majority, and will the
Army back him to the hilt? President Asif Ali Zardari
will have to soon end the farcical musical chair of Prime
Ministers defending him.

Despite the gloomy forecast, no one is writing off
Pakistan, even as a failing state. For the West,
especially the US, it is too precious a country with 90
to 120 deliverable nuclear weapons, a high calibre
professional armed force and a designated hub of
terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. Its survival is
vital for the region too.

Pakistan has continued to defy the US for strategic depth
in the West. Afghanistan specialist Pakistan-born Ahmed
Rashid has suggested that the US give Pakistan an
ultimatum over sanctuaries. But any deadline to Pakistan
will be dangerously difficult to fulfil. Carnegie
Endowment's Ashley Tellis has predicted a strategic
defeat for Pakistan in Afghanistan in any conventional
post-2014 scenario. Similarly Mr Mike Krepon of Stimson
says that while Pakistan's Army is holding a losing hand
that it cannot lay down, US cards are also growing weaker
with time. The bottom line is that this time around,
Pakistan cannot win in Afghanistan. Still the Americans
acknowledge that Pakistan is key to any political
reconciliation and stability in Afghanistan.

Amidst this doom and gloom, Brooking Institution's
Stephen Cohen says that India is the only country that
can rescue Pakistan (from itself) but Pakistan will not
agree to be rescued by India. This is true as India is
the only country that can offer strategic incentives to
the Pakistani Army both in Afghanistan and Kashmir,
perhaps a grand bargain. But for this, one needs an equal
dialogue between the two countries. The fundamental flaw
in conversations with a civilian Government in Pakistan
is that the GHQ writes the agenda. During General Pervez
Musharraf's time, it was different. You got the cease
fire and nearly, a Kashmir agreement. Yet India has no
choice but to help Pakistan. But it cannot do it alone.

Happy Independence Day! Question; why wouldn’t anyone have ever believed that Pakistan, or Pakistanis for that matter, liked the U.S.? They’ve always hated us and were duplicitous in their behavior since day one. Duh. And we let hundreds of thousands (maybe millions by now) of their ilk into the U.S. thinking that somehow they’ll assimilate and be productive, caring U.S. citizens that respect our system of laws, our general respect for others religions, etc. Nah, their fanatical, hateful muslims who relish the thought of having the U.S. ravaged by another terrorist attack. So, why are we sending them billions of dollars in aid, letting their stone age people into our country and ..... looking the other way? What could possibly go wrong? Wake Up, America, before it’s too late.

> I thought Hillary just apologised and bought them off.

They are Muslims; they hate and kick you more if you apologize to them. The Islamic threat needs to be neutralized forever.

"I thought Hillary just apologised and bought them off."

She did, in the form of an official apology of the US to Pakistan. In exchange we get to resume some transshipment of supplies at exorbitant rates and we also get to send them another billion in aid. That money will come back to us in terrorist attacks and supplies for the Taliban.

[Article] Despite the gloomy forecast, no one is writing off Pakistan, even as a failing state. For the West, especially the US, it is too precious a country with 90 to 120 deliverable nuclear weapons, a high calibre professional armed force and a designated hub of terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. Its survival is vital for the region too.

As a logical volte-face and massive non-sequitur, this particular passage is hard to beat.

"On the whole, I'd rather be in Tunbridge Welles" ..... but meanwhile, it's pretty obviously getting to be time to play the India Card. Time for truculent, murderous Fuzzy-Wuzzies to pay up.

“Brooking Institution's Stephen Cohen says that India is the only country that can rescue Pakistan (from itself) but Pakistan will not agree to be rescued by India. This is true as India is the only country that can offer strategic incentives to the Pakistani Army both in Afghanistan and Kashmir, perhaps a grand bargain.”

Stephen Cohen is just another American tool in the hands of Pakistan. Most US administration including the current one have always been tools in the hand of Pakistan.

Stephen Cohen is basically suggesting India give up Kashmir so US can get on with business as usual with Pakistan. What he means to say is only Indian can and should pay the price for US-Pak messes. No amount of US pleading and bribing is working with Pakistan anymore. So its India's turn to pay.

When you hear nonsense like that, India should know when to raise the middle finger.

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