Gloves are on as US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta threatened to take “operational steps” against Pakistan while the American military chief Admiral Mike Mullen accused the ISI of having used its “veritable arm” for attacking the US Embassy in Kabul. Weeks of incessant pressure on Pakistan to undo the Haqqani network, which also brought the ISI chief to Washington, led to the final showdown at a Senate hearing where Admiral Mullen also blamed Islamabad for jeopardising a strategic partnership with the United States.
Can Panetta and Mullen tell us what is “veritable arm” for NATO and ISAF in Afghanistan for cross-border attacks inside Pakistan? Why are they protecting our wanted people there in Afghanistan?
The fact is that the US-NATO forces stand humiliated after a series of Taliban strikes in Kabul’s high security zone housing the US embassy and NATO Headquarters. After 10 years of fighting and pumping almost $1,500bn, the much trumpeted Obama’s glorious surge strategy and the great American economic collapse, if this was to be the result, then all hats are off to the foreign occupation forces for a job well done.
If this is how the Americans treat their allies, they only deserve to be where they are.
FAROOQ KHAN
Pehsawar
