Sir, this is with reference to the provocative statements lately issued by US ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan C. Crocker who appears to be hell bent upon destroying the progress made thus far at both ends to resurrect the fractured US-Pakistan relationship for US arrogance over lives of Pakistani soldiers.
Shifting the onus on Haqqanis and correspondingly Pakistan for its intelligence failure to unearth the Kabul attacks plans to which some ANA insiders were also incidentally privy to before hand, has become a natural phenomenon for US to cover its long list of failures in Afghanistan. Pakistanis have gotten so used to the practice that every time some attack takes place in Afghanistan or elsewhere, they know that they will be linked to them somehow. I wonder why US/NATO fail every time to look inwards and try to cap the loose holes that exist in their intelligence gathering system and the CIA.
US intelligence failure that led a bunch of Taliban fighters carry out attacks on sensitive installations in Kabul and elsewhere with impunity has deeply embarrassed US/NATO and cast doubts on its real prowess.
The intelligence failure has only gone to explain that even after a decade of war US may be destined to face the same kind of embarrassment that it went through in the final stages of Vietnam War. While the US Secretaries of Defense and State convincingly accused Haqqanis for the attacks, Pakistan naturally had to be pressured into taking on Haqqanis in North Waziristan.
For a serious moment let us deliberate who could have been the beneficiaries of these attacks.
It just couldn’t be Pakistan that is striving very hard to wriggle out through one of the difficult phases of its history having drastically suffered from the outfalls of US war in Afghanistan and global politics. Who could it be then? The Taliban are one who were increasingly being painted as a lost cause in US and Western circles.
It could have been the handy-work of RAW and Mossad who are working on a permanent placement in Afghanistan once the US/NATO withdraw from that country. It could be Afghan Northern Alliance influenced NDS that is skeptical of Taliban re-take of Afghanistan upon withdrawal of US/NATO forces. Even it could be Russians that always wanted US to do its dirty laundering in Afghanistan without having to involve itself militarily. Elimination of terrorism and extremism from the region will go on to strengthen Russian hold in the region. Russia showed its dismay on hasty withdrawal of US/NATO forces from Afghanistan.
It is therefore appropriate for the US to rationalize the situation on ground in Afghanistan before it starts accusing Pakistan for any armed attack that occurs in Afghanistan or elsewhere around the globe. Care is especially required as the Pakistanis have not forgotten America’s gruesome attack on Salala’s military check-post that took away the lives of 24 of its finest soldiers and also when both the countries are trying to resurrect the mutilated relationship.
JAVED IQBAL
Islamabad