One year into the job and Gen Joseph Votelmay yet be the man to influence a positive shift in the US engagement with Pakistan. That Gen Votel used last week’s congressional hearing to become the first American general to publicly acknowledge Pakistan’s actions against both the Haqqani network and the Afghan Taliban operating from inside its borders underscores this. This shift in rhetoric ought to be welcomed.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, the CENTCOM chiefopted to view Indian posturing through the Afghan prism, going as far to include subsequent security realities for Pakistan. While his assertions fell short of what Islamabad has long been calling for on this front, the state apparatus ought to think twice before dismissing them entirely out of hand. Step-by-step pragmatism is needed.
Fears of an Indo-Pak war going nuclear are pure hyperbole. Nothing more than a timely reminder that Delhi would do well not to overplay its designation as Washington’s strategic partner for the 21st century. The immediate US priority remains securing Afghanistan. Pakistan is the strategic partner needed to achieve this. If Islamabad is sufficiently smart it will regard this as a small step towards rebuilding the relationship. This can only happen if Washington’s apparent goodwill continues. If not, we return to the drawing board of mutual recriminations and distrust. And assertions that seven of the 20 US-designated terrorist outfits in the Af-Pak region are Pakistan-based will prompt the usual if not invalid knee-jerk response that goes something like this.
It is the US that unleashed instability within Pakistan’s borders when it chose military intervention in Afghanistan over having the Taliban hand over Bin Laden to a third country, most likely Pakistan itself. This misstep saw much of the Al Qaeda leadership flee to Pakistan, resulting in its superficial decimation in Afghanistan, as underscored by then CIA director, Leon Panetta, back in 2010: “I think at most, we’re looking at maybe 50 to 100, maybe less. It’s in that vicinity. There’s no question that the main location of Al Qaeda is in tribal areas of Pakistan.” Meaning that to all outward appearances the US simply stood by and watched while members of Bin Laden’s network sought refuge in the very country whose nuclear blueprints the Al Qaeda chief had been actively seeking since 1998, resulting in him unsuccessfully approaching at least thrice the AQ Khan network. And which, in post-9/11 terms, translated into US manoeuvring against the so-called Talibanisation of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. Let’s hope this is the start of a new strategic relationship.
Forengaging in endless rounds of the blame game renders everyone a loser. In all senses of the word. *