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\u201cTerrorism is not a statistic for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Asif Ali Zardari, president of Pakistan<\/p>\n
This is a Pakistani truism that few Americans understand. Since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, Pakistan has lost more than 35,000 people, the vast bulk of them civilians. While the U.S. has had slightly over 1800 soldiers killed in the past 10 years, Pakistan has lost over 5,000 soldiers and police. The number of suicide bombings in Pakistan has gone from one before 2001, to more than 335 since.<\/p>\n
For most Americans, Pakistan is a two-faced \u201cally\u201d playing a double game in Central Asia, all while siphoning off tens of billions of dollars in aid. For Pakistanis, the spillover from the Afghan war has cost Islamabad approximately of $100 billion. And this is in a country with a yearly GDP of around $175 billion, and whose resources have been deeply strained by two years of catastrophic flooding.<\/p>\n
Washington complains that its $20.7 billion in aid over the past nine years has bought it very little in the way of loyalty from Islamabad, while Pakistan points out that U.S. aid makes up less than 0.3 percent of Pakistan\u2019s yearly GDP, what Zahid Hussain, author of a book on Islamic militants, says comes out to \u201cthe price of a six-inch personal-size pizza with no extra toppings from Pizza Hut\u201d for each Pakistani. In any case, much of the civilian aid\u2014the bulk, $14.2 billion, goes to the military\u2014has yet to be disbursed.<\/p>\n
Both countries\u2019 opinions of one another are almost mirror images: According to a U.S. poll, 74 percent of Americans do not consider Pakistan to be an ally, while the Pew Research Center found that six in 10 Pakistanis consider the Americans an \u201cenemy,\u201d and only 12 Percent have a favorable view of the U.S.<\/p>\n
How did this happen? In part the answer is mistakes and misjudgments by both countries that date back to the 1979-89 Russian occupation. But at its heart is an American strategy that not only runs counter to Pakistan\u2019s interests, but will make ending the war in Afghanistan a far more painful procedure than it need be.<\/p>\n
If Pakistan is a victim in the long running war, it is not entirely an innocent one. Pakistan, along with the U.S., was an ally of the anti-Communist, right wing Mujahideen during the 1980s Afghan war.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s interest in Afghanistan has always been multi-faceted. Islamabad is deeply worried that its traditional enemy, India, will gain a foothold in Afghanistan, thus essentially surrounding Pakistan. This is not exactly paranoid, as Pakistan has fought\u2014and lost\u2014three wars with India, and tensions between the two still remain high.<\/p>\n
Over the past six years, India has conducted 10 major military exercises along the Pakistani border, the latest\u2014Viajyee Bhava (Be Victorious)\u2014involved 20,000 troops and what New Delhi military spokesman S.D. Goswaim called \u201csustained massed mechanized maneuvers.\u201d Pakistan is the only potential enemy in the region that \u201cmassed\u201d armored formations could be aimed at. India has the world\u2019s fourth largest army, Pakistan\u2019s the 15th.<\/p>\n
By aligning itself with Washington during its Cold War competition with the Soviets in Afghanistan, Islamabad had the inside track to buy high performance American military hardware to help it offset India\u2019s numerical superiority. Indeed, it did manage to purchase some F-16s fighter-bombers.<\/p>\n
But in Central Asia, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. When Pakistan allied itself with the Taliban, India aligned itself with the Northern Alliance composed of Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazaras, who opposed the Pashtun-dominated Taliban. Pashtuns are a plurality in Afghanistan\u2019s complex mix of ethnicities, and traditionally they dominated the Kabul government.<\/p>\n
Islamabad has always been deeply concerned about the Pashtuns, because the ethnic group makes up some 15 percent of Pakistan\u2019s population, and Pashtuns do not recognize the colonial period border\u2014the so-called Durand Line\u2014that forms the current boundary between the two countries. A long-time fear of Islamabad is that Pakistani Pashtuns could ally themselves to Afghani Pashtuns and form a breakaway country that would fragment Pakistan.<\/p>\n
From Islamabad\u2019s point of view, the American demand that it corral the Taliban and the Haqqani Group that operate from mountainous Northwest Frontier and Federally Administrated Tribal Areas of Pakistan might stir up Pashtun nationalism, one of those things that goes bump in the night for most Pakistanis. In any case, the task would be beyond the capabilities of the Pakistan military. In 2009, the Pakistani Army used two full divisions just to reclaim the Swat Valley from local militants, a battle that cost billions of dollars, generated two million refugees, and inflicted heavy casualties.<\/p>\n
Current U.S. strategy has exacerbated Pakistan\u2019s problem by putting the Northern Alliance in power, excluding the Pashtuns from any meaningful participation, and targeting the ethnic group\u2019s heartland in Southern and Eastern Afghanistan. According to Hussain, this has turned the war into a \u201cPashtun war,\u201d and meant, \u201cThe Pashtuns in Pakistan would become\u2026strongly allied with both al Qaeda and the Taliban.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S has also remained silent while India moved aggressively into Afghanistan. On Oct. 4, Kabul and New Delhi inked a \u201cstrategic partnership\u201d which, according to the New York Times, \u201cpaves the way for India to train and equip Afghan security forces.\u201d The idea of India training Afghan troops is the equivalent of waving a red flag to see if the Pakistani bull will charge.<\/p>\n
One pretext for the agreement was the recent assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of the Afghan High Peace Council, whom the Karzai government claims was killed by the Taliban under the direction of the Pakistani secret service, the ISI. But evidence linking the Taliban or Pakistan to the hit is not persuasive, and the Taliban and Haqqani Group\u2014never shy about taking the credit for killing people\u2014say they had nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s ISI certainly maintains a relationship with the Afghan-based Taliban and the Haqqani Group, but former Joint Chiefs of Staff head, Admiral Mike Mullen\u2019s charge that the latter are a \u201cveritable arm\u201d of Pakistan\u2019s ISI is simply false. The Haqqanis come from the powerful Zadran Gaum Pushtun tribe based in Paktia and Khost provinces in Afghanistan, and North Wazirstan in Pakistan\u2019s Tribal Area. It was one of the most effective military groupings in the war with the Russians, and is certainly the most dangerous group of fighters in the current war.<\/p>\n
When their interests coincide the Haqqanis find common ground with Islamabad, but the idea that Pakistan can get anyone in that region to jump to attention reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the deeply engrained cultural and ethnic currents that have successfully rebuffed outsiders for thousands of years. And in the border region, the Pakistan Army is as much an outsider as is NATO.<\/p>\n
There a way out of this morass, but it will require a very different strategy than the one the U.S. is currently following, and one far more attuned to the lens through which most Pakistanis view the war in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
First, the U.S. and its allies must stand down their military offensive\u2014including the drone attacks\u2014against the Taliban and Haqqani Group, and negotiate a ceasefire.<\/p>\n
Second, the U.S. must open immediate talks with the various insurgency groups and declare a plan for the withdrawal of all foreign troops. The Taliban\u2014the Haqqanis say they will follow the organization\u2019s lead\u2014has indicated they will no longer insist on a withdrawal of troops before opening talks, but they do want a timetable.<\/p>\n
Third, recognition that any government in Kabul must reflect the ethnic make-up of the country.<\/p>\n
Fourth, Pakistan\u2019s concerns over Indian influence need to be addressed, including the dangerous issue of Kashmir. President Obama ran on a platform that called for dealing with Kashmir, but subsequently dropped it at the insistence of New Delhi. The issue needs to be put back on the table. The next dust-up between Pakistan and India could go nuclear, which would be a catastrophe of immeasurable proportions.<\/p>\n
Pakistan and the U.S. may have profoundly different views of one another, but at least one issue they agree: slightly over 90 percent of Pakistanis would like U.S. troops to go home, and 62 percent of Americans want an immediate cut in U.S. forces. Common ground in this case seems to be based on a strong dose of common sense.<\/p>\n
Source<\/a><\/p>\n Also<\/p>\n \u201cTerrorism is not a statistic for us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014Asif Ali Zardari, president of Pakistan<\/p>\n This is a Pakistani truism that few Americans understand. Since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, Pakistan has lost more than 35,000 people, the vast bulk of them civilians. While the U.S. has had slightly over 1800 soldiers killed in the past 10 years, Pakistan has lost over 5,000 soldiers and police. The number of suicide bombings in Pakistan has gone from one before 2001, to more than 335 since.Love Fest in the Hindu Kush<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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