Pushtuns will not accept India’s role.

Courtesy: Mohammad Jamil
Pakistan is facing a covert war from the CIA and RAW; and the recent strategic partnership agreement between Afghanistan and India would pose a serious threat on Pakistan’s western border.
However, the United States on Tuesday ruled out any mediatory role for India in the Afghan peace process. The truth of the matter is that Taliban leadership and Pushtuns would neither accept mediatory nor any other kind of role for India, as the latter has had very close relations with the Northern Alliance – archenemy of Taliban. Secondly India had been strongly opposing the reconciliation process because both India and the Northern Alliance would stand to lose in case majority-Pushtuns get their due share in the government. Though President Hamid Karzai is a Pushtun, but Pushtuns do not like him because he props Northern Alliance to the detriment of Pushtuns. The strategic partnership agreement between Afghanistan and India has been signed at the behest of the occupiers. This agreement was on the cards since the US-led invasion ousted the Taliban and installed its proxies in office. The Indians also had actively sided with the alliance in its fight against the Taliban, providing the technicians and air force personnel to maintain its planes.

In a message aimed at Islamabad, Afghan President Hamid Karzai Wednesday said the strategic partnership pact signed with India was not directed against any other country and will not upset relations with Pakistan. “Pakistan is a twin brother. India is a great friend. This agreement will not affect our relations with our brother,” Karzai said when asked whether the pact with New Delhi will affect relations with Islamabad. Before leaving for India, President Hamid Karzai - American surrogate and India’s friend – had in a veiled reference to Pakistan said: “Afghanistan recognizes the dangers that this region faces through terrorism and radicalism that is being used as an instrument of policy against our citizens.” In the past, at one time he had all praise for Pakistan’s role in Afghan war and also in the war on terror, but at another he used vitriolic to denigrate Pakistan, its military and intelligence agencies. He does not feel any qualms for India using Afghanistan territory to destabilize Pakistan, and terrorists’ crossing over the border and attacking Pakistan’s security personnel and civilians in Dir and Chitral.

The perception has gained currency that America and India are working hand in glove to destabilize Pakistan. After 2nd May attack on Abbottabad compound by US Navy Seals, then CIA chief and now Defence Secretary Leon Panetta had stated that America does not need cooperation from the ISI, as the CIA has been able to cultivate its own intelligence sources and have successfully established independent networks of information having intelligence value. These include some media men, religious parties, political leaders, social outfits and non-state actors including terrorist organizations. Moulvi Fazlullah, Brahamdagh Bugti all anti-Pakistan elements and miscreants are operating from Afghanistan and carrying out subversive activities in Karachi, Balochistan and in FATA. But our palmed-off media men, politicians and NGOs do not think it appropriate to comment on their heinous crimes, and they endorse the views of Americans and speak their language. Whether it was Osama bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan, or attack on Mehran base, they ridicule military and intelligence agencies in one way or another.

The fact remains that since joining the war on terror, Pakistan has arrested many Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders and handed over to Americans. Pakistan has conducted military operations against Pakistani Taliban and other outfits and destroyed their infrastructure. In the process, Pakistan has lost 35000 men and 5000 security personnel during this war. Yet Pakistan is blamed for ensconcing Taliban or Haqqani network. The problem is that America has lost the war in Afghanistan. Going by the details of what the US and NATO forces have achieved during the last ten years, America has lost the war in Afghanistan. Last year, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele had described Afghanistan as a war of Obama’s choosing and reckoned that the United States would fail there as had many other outside powers. The neocons and corporate capital - fountainhead of US imperialism - are hell-bent to create chaos in this part of the world. Historical evidence suggested that they were instrumental in stirring Korean War, Vietnam War, invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. They are least bothered if America suffers ignominious defeat or loses respect in the comity of nations, so long as they make a quick buck out of every misadventure or crisis.

In fact, American civil and military leadership had miscalculated Afghans’ determination to resist. American and its allied forces had relied on their air-power, and on ground, America had then deployed about 6500 in Bagram and ISAF around 12000 troops in Kabul. At that time they knew where Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and Taliban leadership were holed in. They used heavy bombardment and pulverized even mountains using daisy-cutter bombs, but since they did not put enough boots on the ground they could not chase, arrest or kill Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders who went underground. Up to 2006 ISAF remained in Kabul and did not like to go to other parts of Afghanistan for the fear of casualties with the result that the Taliban got enough time to reorganize and come back with greater ferocity. American and ISAF forces had the wishful thinking that with shock and awe they will be able to terrorize the Taliban fighters, but it was not something new for Afghans who have had the history of giving tough time to the invaders and making Afghanistan as ‘graveyard of empires’.

Nevertheless, US security concerns in Afghanistan are understandable, as upsurge in Taliban activities is troubling the US-led coalition forces. Last year, America had appointed David Patraeus (hero of Iraq) as Commander of the International Security Assistance Force and commander of US force in Afghanistan with the hope he would maneuver and manipulate in Afghanistan, as he did in Iraq. Though he claims to have pacified southern Afghanistan but the facts are contrary to what he says. The pragmatic analysis of performance by US and NATO forces operating in Afghanistan would reveal that world’s strongest military forces, equipped with the most modern arsenals and early warning system, have miserably failed in the face of threat posed by Taliban. Mike Mullen, David Patraeus and others had found an easy way to shift the blame of their tactical failures in Afghanistan to Pakistan stating that Haqqani network inside FATA was the sole factor hindering military success in Afghanistan. America is playing a dangerous game by sidelining Pakistan from future reconciliation process. There is a perception that the elements who are opposed to peace process are behind Burhanuddin’s murder.

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