The recent announcement that American commanders are now ‘authorised’ to deal with terrorist safe-havens in both Afghanistan and Pakistan is cause for concern. While articulating this policy — no mention was made as to which international framework would sanction such unilateral actions in Pakistan. This is however not a new approach as the Obama administration also endorsed the idea of air and land incursions to go after Washington’s then most wanted militants; the Big Three. In fact, Pakistan is used to such aggressive tactics that have been part and parcel of its dealings with the US over the last 16 long years. A new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll Directorate S: The CIA and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001-2016 confirms that the US policy in Af-Pak region has faltered on may counts. This book based on decade-long research traces the period of mission unaccomplished and Washington’s subsequent policies of trial and terror. In fact, Coll’s account exposes the gravity of delusions and hubris of US and British leaders and commanders on Afghanistan. It is also a testament of the CIA’s missteps in the two countries and the so-called war on terror. For this has been a journey conducted in the dark. And even if the lights were on — no one would be home. Of that we are quite sure. Consider this: back in December 2001 — during those heady days of Operation Enduring Freedom — George W Bush declared that the US would stay until the job was done. Fast-forward to December 2017 and there was the Vice President caught in a loop; peddling the same line about how American troops were there to stay in Afghanistan until freedom wins. Today, the Taliban are said to be openly active in 70 percent of that country, with opium production at an all-time high. Thus Pakistan should avoid a knee-jerk response to this latest US directive. This is not to say that we shouldn’t secure our borders and flush out any militant remnants. Doing so is in no one else’s national interest more so than our own. But simply put, we have been here many times before when it comes to American strong-arm tactics. But what remains a matter of profound concern are continued US flip-flops, such as the recent and much touted troop surge. This has prompted one British terror expert to not unreasonably ask if their mission is to defeat the Taliban or to drag it to the Kabul negotiating table. While one American journalist notes that the then incoming Obama administration made it clear to Hamid Karzai that Pakistan was fifty times more important to Washington’s mission than Afghanistan. A shame, then, that the Americans have spent over the last decade-and-a-half prioritising the wrong country; when this time could have been better spent engaging us through the prism of no excess baggage. * Published in Daily Times, February 2nd 2018.