{"id":2430,"date":"2021-10-23T18:55:05","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T08:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/?p=2430"},"modified":"2021-10-24T07:18:56","modified_gmt":"2021-10-23T21:18:56","slug":"why-is-washington-encouraging-india-to-confront-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/?p=2430","title":{"rendered":"Why is Washington Encouraging India to Confront Pakistan? BY BRIAN CLOUGHLEY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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India and Pakistan share a long border and do not get along well, to put it mildly.\u00a0\u00a0The main cause of disagreement is the divided territory of Kashmir which as long ago as 1948 necessitated UN Security Council attention, resulting in a\u00a0Resolution<\/a>\u00a0determining, among other things, that there should be a \u201cfree and impartial plebiscite to decide whether the State of Jammu and Kashmir is to accede to India or Pakistan.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0This has not happened and the seemingly insoluble dispute could well lead to a fourth war between the countries, both of which are nuclear-armed.<\/p>\n

It might be thought that in such circumstances the world\u2019s \u201cbest-educated, best-prepared\u201d\u00a0nation<\/a>\u00a0that President Biden also\u00a0declares<\/a>\u00a0has \u201cunmatched strength\u201d would apply at least some of its education, preparation and power to encouraging India and Pakistan to engage in meaningful negotiations and move towards rapprochement.<\/p>\n

Not a hope.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman recently visited India and Pakistan, but rather than attempting to coax and persuade her host nations to reduce bilateral tension and confrontation she publicly insulted Pakistan and\u00a0urged<\/a>\u00a0India to cooperate militarily even more closely with the US.\u00a0\u00a0She widened the chasm of polarisation in a public\u00a0speech<\/a>\u00a0in India\u2019s commercial centre, Mumbai, by declaring \u201cWe don\u2019t see ourselves building a broad relationship with Pakistan, and we have no interest in returning to the days of hyphenated India-Pakistan. That\u2019s not where we are. That\u2019s not where we\u2019re going to be.\u201d Not content with demonstrably taking sides and thus stoking fires in a tinder-box region, she said that when she went on to Pakistan next day her discussions there would be for \u201ca very specific and narrow purpose\u201d, and everything that was discussed would be\u00a0passed on<\/a>\u00a0to India because \u201cwe share information back and forth between our governments\u201d.<\/p>\n

The reasons for this surge in US support for India in its face-off with Pakistan are not hard to detect, and the main one is that India and China are at loggerheads, and indeed in a state of aggressive\u00a0military standoff<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Any country in disagreement with China is automatically regarded with approval by Washington, while any country that actively cooperates with China \u2014 like Pakistan \u2014 is equally automatically considered to be an enemy of freedom.<\/p>\n

The US needed Pakistan during its 20-year military occupation of Afghanistan, and attempted to use successive governments in Islamabad to assist in its operations.\u00a0\u00a0But now that it and the Nato military alliance and some 300,000 members of Afghanistan\u2019s own military forces have been decisively\u00a0routed<\/a>\u00a0by about 70,000 barbaric, bigoted, raggy-baggy Taliban savages, it is increasingly attractive for the Biden administration to blame anyone other than the Pentagon and the Washington establishment for the catastrophic debacle.\u00a0\u00a0They claim that Pakistan helped the Taliban \u2014 and it cannot be denied that the government and its military in Islamabad maintained contact with the Afghan Taliban, for good reasons.<\/p>\n

As I\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0some years ago, in 2007 the then head of the Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence, General Kayani (who became army chief), \u201ctold the author, in answer to a direct question, that \u2018of course\u2019 he maintained contact with some subversive groups, thereby not only holding doors ajar for negotiations but keeping track of various members of such organisations.\u00a0\u00a0He stated that if he did not have some sort of contact with these people they would simply disappear and his directorate would lose what ever degree of influence it had that it might be able to bring to bear on them when the need arose.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he kept contact \u2014 and there was indubitable need for Pakistan\u2019s influence and assistance in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

In December 2018 even\u00a0Voice of America<\/em>\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that after US-Taliban negotiations in Abu Dhabi \u201cPakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan . . . reiterated his country \u201cwill do everything within its power\u201d to further the Afghan peace process.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Khan is quoted as saying \u201cPakistan has helped in the dialogue between Taliban and the U.S. in Abu Dhabi. Let us pray that this leads to peace and ends almost three decades of suffering of the brave Afghan people.\u201d Washington downplayed the importance of Pakistan\u2019s assistance, but VOA acknowledged that \u201cThe U.S. spokesperson also said a recent letter from U.S. President Donald Trump to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan \u2018emphasized that Pakistan\u2019s assistance with the Afghan peace process is fundamental to building an enduring U.S.-Pakistan partnership\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The International Crisis Group is objective about Pakistan and\u00a0noted recently<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cAs early as the 2001 Bonn conference that drew up a roadmap for post-invasion Afghanistan, Pakistan had asked for the Taliban\u2019s inclusion in consultations on Afghanistan\u2019s constitutional and political restructuring. A former senior Pakistani diplomat said Pakistan had \u2018pleaded with the U.S. to include the Taliban in Bonn\u2019. Pakistan\u2019s consistent efforts to persuade the U.S. to bring the Taliban into the political mainstream appeared to bear fruit a decade later, when the Obama administration signalled its intention to leave Afghanistan and its openness to talking with the Taliban.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0And the numerous attempts to move to a peaceful solution staggered along, aided by Pakistan\u2019s influence, which incurred the wrath of Washington on the grounds that Pakistan\u00a0provided<\/a>\u00a0\u201csafe havens to terrorist organisations\u201d.<\/p>\n

The fact that before the US invasion in 2001 Pakistan had suffered only one suicide bombing (by a nutty Egyptian trying to blow up his embassy) and that in the period January 2002 to October 10, 2021, as\u00a0calculated<\/a>\u00a0by India\u2019s\u00a0South Asia Terrorism Portal<\/em>, there were 594 suicide attacks, killing over 5,000 civilians, might seem at variance with allegations that Pakistan likes terrorists, as does the fact that 1231 members of the military have been killed as a result of the US war, including 24 who died in a particularly savage strafing\u00a0attack<\/a>\u00a0by US strike aircraft on the Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Not only has Pakistan suffered enormously from terrorist barbarism, there are about\u00a01.4 million<\/a>\u00a0registered Afghan refugees in the country along with a further\u00a01.5 million<\/a>\u00a0unregistered \u2014 and more are flooding in following the recent debacle.\u00a0\u00a0Social, economic and security problems arising from the presence of these exiles continue to be enormous, yet the US refuses to acknowledge that there could be great difficulty in identifying Taliban sympathisers or adherents among the millions.\u00a0\u00a0And, as an\u00a0Atlantic Council<\/em>\u00a0analyst\u00a0points out<\/a>, \u201cUS policymakers have turned a blind eye to the negative impact of an unstable Afghanistan on Pakistan . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

But Pakistan is on Washington\u2019s back-burner and President Biden won\u2019t speak with Prime Minister Imran Khan, which is regarded by Pakistan as a deliberate insult. On the other hand, the President warmly\u00a0greeted<\/a>\u00a0Indian Prime Minister Modi to the White House in September and was effusive in declaring that he wanted \u201cto welcome my friend \u2014 and we have known each other for some time \u2014 back to the White House.\u00a0 And, Mr. Prime Minister, we\u2019re going to continue to build on our strong partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s continuing bias regarding India versus Pakistan will serve no useful purpose for the US.\u00a0\u00a0It will drive Pakistan closer to China, with which it already has most extensive and important economic ties, and bolster India\u2019s determination to step up its dangerous face-off with Beijing.\u00a0\u00a0Washington wants to conquer by dividing the sub-continent, but all it\u2019s doing is increasing the probability of greater confrontation which will lead to conflict. Wendy Sherman\u2019s\u00a0declaration<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cWe don\u2019t see ourselves building a broad relationship with Pakistan\u201d was a major diplomatic blunder that fueled the fires of\u00a0\u00a0hostility.<\/p>\n

Biden and his hawks should pause to think where they\u2019re trying to take the world, and consider an approach that could lead to negotiation and compromise rather than encouraging India and Pakistan on a course to war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Brian Cloughley<\/strong>\u00a0writes about foreign policy and military affairs. He lives in\u00a0Voutenay sur Cure, France.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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