US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton concluded her two days visit to Pakistan on October 21, 2011. She was accompanied by the director of the CIA, David Petraeus, and the new US military chief, General Martin Dempsey. Composition of the visiting team reflected on the US desire to revive relations with Pakistan at the highest level, ie, the government-to-government, army-to-army and between intelligence agencies. It happens to be the first serious effort by the US government to bridge the gap created due to Abbottabad incident. The relations between the two countries touched its lowest ebb when Admiral Mullen described Haqqani network as “veritable arm” of the ISI and indirectly blamed it for engineering terrorist attacks on NATO Headquarters and US embassy in Kabul. It certainly was a serious accusation. Recently, NATO forces have been moved close to Pakistan border and positioned opposite North Waziristan. The build-up included helicopter gunship, heavy artillery and a large contingent of US and Afghan military personnel, which raised considerable concern in Pakistan.
The APC session was called and a joint resolution passed to demonstrate nation’s political will to resolve the issue of extremism through peaceful means. A conference of senior commanders was held, presumably to chalk out the strategies to be adopted. It was just two days prior to the visit of the US secretary of state that army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani in a briefing to the members of the defence committee of parliament said the US would have to think “10 times” before launching a unilateral action in Pakistan ie in the restive North Waziristan. The present visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has helped defuse tension to some extent. Clinton followed a very hectic schedule and in a short visit of less than forty hours held meetings with president, prime minister, political leadership, military leadership, talked to the civil society and answered questions from anchor persons besides addressing a joint press conference.
She was forthright and candid in her views and like always created positive impact on Pakistani masses. Except for what was said for public consumption, little is known as to what transpired behind the closed doors. She agreed that peace be given a chance. Towards this end negotiations may be held with Taliban and Haqqani elements seeking peace. She also acknowledged that every intelligence agency tries and maintains working contacts with extremist organisations to stay informed. That does not mean that intelligence setups are directing their operations, absolving Pakistan of the blame levied by Admiral Mullen. She said Pakistan and the US were on the same page 90 percent to 95 percent. That was a very encouraging statement but what we do not know is how critical those five percent differences are. The questions that Clinton could not answer well were regarding trust-deficit between the two countries and why Pakistan is portrayed as enemy in the US media. It is ironical that in every article published in US print media, Pakistan is portrayed as villain. That amounts to molding US public opinion against Pakistan.
The notion of US sense of urgency to tackle terrorists in Pak-Afghan border area may not be shared by regional states simply because of the fear of backlash in shape of bomb blasts and spread of this menace into peaceful parts of the country. For Pakistan and even for Afghanistan the primary concern would be to contain terrorism and defeat their ideology through education, development and bringing prosperity to these underdeveloped regions. US impatience and Clinton’s firm assertions that Pakistan must take action against Haqqani network not in months and years, rather in days and weeks may prove to be counterproductive. The seeds of Talibanisation were sowed by Americans about thirty years back. Now it has become a firmly embedded ideology, which won’t be rewound by killing of few hundreds individual. We need to address the causes.
The most important one is presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan. The other immediate causes include drone attacks and loss of dear ones by kith and kin of so called Taliban. The loss of loved ones acts as the most powerful motivator for their near relatives to opt into the ranks of al Qaeda and Taliban. These causes need to be addressed at the earliest. The sufferings of the people must be compensated through rapid development. It is hope for the better future that will prevent general public from joining ranks of Taliban .and al Qaeda. Americans need to understand this point of view rather than pushing the regional countries into action to satisfy their home grown concerns like economic pressure and American public disapproval for war in Afghanistan. The American public’s war weariness and elections in the near future seems to be pushing the war in Afghanistan into a wrong direction. For lasting peace in the region Americans need to be more receptive to the proposals made by Pakistan.
