Former Pakistani president on Monday said that the United States has blundered throughout South Asia over the past quarter of a century by committing into three ‘major blunders’ that have destabilized the region and led to the rise of international terrorism.
Musharraf said that the US committed its first blunder in the region in 1989. He said that “having defeated the Soviet Union with the help of Pakistan and the Afghan mujahideen, the Americans abandoned Afghanistan and distanced themselves from Pakistan. To add insult to injury, the United States also developed strategic relations with India, Pakistan’s longtime rival”,
He said that the United States completely switched sides: while Pakistan was its strategic partner since 1948, now India is its primary regional ally. Pakistan, meanwhile, was slapped with sanctions, he said.
The second U.S. blunder according to Musharraf was when it attempted to isolate the Taliban once they came to power.
Pakistan was the only country that recognized the Taliban when they established a government in 1996. “When U S President Bill Clinton came to Pakistan in 2000, he was almost reprimanding my country for dealing with the Taliban, and he urged Pakistan to sever diplomatic relations with them” said Musharraf. He added that “I suggested a different strategy: The world and the United States should recognize the Taliban and open diplomatic missions in Afghanistan. They should work with the Taliban to moderate their behavior. Clinton didn’t agree, of course, and the United States continued its policy of isolation”.
Musharraf said that the U S policy of engagement could have prevented all the destruction that came later.
Musharraf said that “I sent five delegations of all kinds of people, including religious leaders, to persuade Mullah Omar to abandon bin Laden. If there had also been diplomatic relations with the United States and other Western countries, we could have put even more pressure on him. And maybe the 9/11 attacks would not have taken place. It’s a big thing that I’m saying, but I believe it.”
Following the 9/11 attacks, the United States and its allies attacked Afghanistan and defeated the Taliban. Then the United States committed its third blunder: It failed to convert its military victory in Afghanistan into a political victory. It forged a government in Kabul that could not win the support of the population, resulting in the resurgence of the Taliban in 2005 and 2006. Musharraf said that “we needed to install a government that was dominated by the Pashtuns, because Pashtuns are the largest Afghan community”.
However the US chose to install a government which was favorable to the Northern Alliance as it had assisted the US in overthrowing the Taliban regime. As a result Pashtuns felt alienated and this resulted in Taliban resurgence in 2005 and 2006.
Musharraf concluded that putting of all eggs by the US in the basket of the Northern Alliance was the United States’ biggest blunder, but it persisted pursuing the strategy and continues doing so even now. “This is a grave mistake, and unless it is corrected, we will not be able to make progress” Musharraf concluded.