The Trump administration is convinced after compelling intelligence reports that Pakistan is supporting Taliban militants, said Raza.
He added that the same was said again and again by the Obama administration but in a veiled manner
Scanning through US President Trump’s speech, it doesn’t have anything sensational or out of the box approach to resolve the Afghan crisis. As such there is nothing new in this speech accept clearly restating Washington’s current Afghan policy.
New White House Afghan strategy, as claimed by yjr State Department, breaks from previous approaches that set artificial calendar-based deadlines. It is a policy with a limitless deadline—from here to eternity.
Now President Trump has made clear to the Taliban that they will not win on the battlefield. Washington’s message to the Taliban is clear–choose a path to peace and political legitimacy through a negotiated political settlement to end the war or they will get to be stoutly countered from all sides.
Like all previous presidents Trump asked Pakistan to do more, yet also adopted a radically harsher tone. However, he also said wrapping up the war would require diplomatically engaging Pakistan, Afghanistan and India to create the conditions for stability in the region.
Talking to DNA, Pakistan’s former high commissioner to UK and veteran journalist, Wajid Shamsul Hasan said that Trump’s Afghan strategy is silent about Chinese and Russian involvement though ingress of these new actors has tilted somewhat the balance towards Pakistan. Russian comment on speech is most interesting. It says that Trump’s Afghan policy is more aimed at China rather than Taliban.
The former diplomat added that there was some consolation from Pakistan’s perspective. Perhaps keeping in view Pakistan’s India-specific sensitivity, Trump wants Indian support in Afghanistan in economy and reconstruction.
Though India wanted, Trump has not conceded any role to India in Afghanistan’s security. For security he refers to Pakistan and Afghan government only while supportive of conducting unconditional talks with Taliban.
How much benefits Pakistan could get out of it would depend on its co-operation and effective action against the Haqqani network and other groups as demanded by President Trump who per se would not tolerate any more Pakistani establishment’s running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.
“One cannot rule out more intensive drone attacks on the hideouts of Taliban within the settled areas of Pakistan,” he said.
Ambassador Wajid added that on the eve of the announcement of President Trump’s new Afghan strategy, American NSA conveyed seriousness of DC to both General Bajwa and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqqan Abbasi that enough is enough– take firm action against Haqqani Network and other safe heavens of terrorists in Pakistan or “we will sort them out ourselves”.
I believe that General Bajwa has convinced the Centcom generals that Pakistan no longer provides safe havens. And it is up to the Americans to defeat them, said Ambassador Wajid.
He added that Washington will watch Pakistan’s performance and then act on its own without telling Pakistan. There could be more drone attacks inside Pakistan’s settled areas.
Brigadier (R) Asad Munir, an acclaimed defence analyst who has also served in senior intelligence postings in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, said that it is not for the first time something like this has happened. Since 2007 different US officials have been making such claims and talking about safe havens of terrorists in Pakistan.
Brigadier Asad added that some parts of tribal areas from 2003 till 2014 were not under the control of Pakistan government. There were people who were fighting against our army and they were in big numbers. They killed about 7,000 soldiers and 70,000 people of Pakistan.
He added that we made some mistakes and we learned from them and realised that negotiating with these people will not bring positive results and ultimately we went for an operation.
“Now there is no area in Pakistan which we can call safe haven for terrorists,” said Brigadier Asad.
If Donald Trump, his generals and officials are so sure that they still exist in Pakistan they should provide evidence, he said.
However, senior politician and an expert on Afghan affairs, Afrasiab Khattak said that the speech by Donald Trump was by enlarge a balanced one.
“I think Americans seem to have learned from their mistakes. They did not declared Pakistan as a state sponsoring terrorism formally. Trump did not declare cutting off Pakistan’s aid immediately. He left space for Pakistan to change”, he said.
“In 2014 during the all parties’ conference we decided in our National Action Plan to not allow these people to function but unfortunately, we have failed to implement that policy. We have failed to curb terrorism and extremism from our country”.
The senior politician added that we haven’t been able to reform religious seminaries, and we haven’t been to introduce reforms in Fata and other things that we promised.
“I think we should have self-criticism also as our Afghan policy is a very flawed. Supporting Taliban is a wrong policy,” said the former ANP senator.
Agreeing with Khattak, Ahsan Raza, a Lahore-based journalist who closely follows strategic issues, stressed the need to listen to Trump. First off, what Trump has said now, the Afghan government has been saying for a long time. Taliban have wreaked havoc in recent times through a series of suicide bombing in Afghanistan, he said.
The Trump administration is convinced after compelling intelligence reports that Pakistan is supporting Taliban militants, said Raza.
He added that the same was said again and again by the Obama administration but in a veiled manner.
“Trump knows no veiled diplomacy. He believes in open warnings and open words. So, the world may not buy Pakistan arguments that it has nothing to do with Taliban militants,” said Raza.
A good strategy now should be to hold talks with Afghanistan and America and working together to flush out militants, he advised.
Political economist, Mobeen Chughtai told DNA, that we stand at a juncture in our history where we have a choice. The choice is between continuing our relationship with the United States or forging new relationships and alliances with emerging powers such as China and Russia.
“While, by no means, an easy choice – it is, nonetheless, the first time in over four decades that Pakistan has an opportunity to get out from under the US thumb. Just look at the fruits of our ‘joint operations’ with the United States. We have devolved the Afghan state, created the monster of terrorism in our own backyard, lost thousands of lives in terrorist attacks spanning more than a decade and injected (and lost) millions of dollars into a war effort that was completely unnecessary”, he pointed out.
Chughtai added that as for the US’s role, it was the one that framed and funded the strategy that got us into this mess to begin with. Washington supported illegal and immoral dictatorships in the country (despite its many claims to be the global vanguard of democracy) and now holds the same money, that we spent on continuing our alliance in the US war on terror, as ransom against our subservience.
He added that these are not actions of a friend nor are they in the interest of the people of Pakistan. So the question is, when the US is focusing on securing its interests in the region, even to the detriment of Pakistan’s interests, why is the free state of Pakistan not ensuring the same for itself?
Add to this a rapidly crumbling White House that is leaking legitimacy both on the local and international front and the immediate choice becomes obvious.
The political economist added that Pakistan should seriously consider shifting it’s polarity from Washington to new allies such as China and Russia, who have defended Pakistan on many occasions in the past, and create new relationships that are mutually beneficial rather than one-sided ones that undermine Pakistan’s own security.
