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The American way
As reported in the New York Times, classified military documents concerning the war in Afghanistan, spanning a period of six years, were made public on Sunday. The documents are often at variance with official accounts of the war and are bound to stir up considerable controversy and debate. The documents were probably procured and revealed illegally, but are too important to be discarded casually. Primarily they detail how the American military and establishment have deliberately winked at Pakistan’s duplicity in its dealings with both America and Afghanistan, all at the altar of political expediency. For example, there is growing evidence that the cozy relationship Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, the ISI, has long had with the Afghan Taliban and even some elements of Al Qaeda has been instrumental in killing and maiming American troops. The George W Bush presidency was routinely criticized for its handling of the war in Afghanistan, but the reality is that there have been more American troop casualties since Barrack Obama took office, In fact, Obama himself admitted that he knew what was going on: and the problem with Pakistan was the reason he took so long to decide on a troop surge last year. So was the US constrained to allow the Pakistan military help the Taliban blow up American soldiers because it needed to truck NATO supplies through their country? Americans troops in Afghanistan have long suspected that Pakistan’s military spy service has orchestrated the Afghan insurgency to serve its own ends, while at the same time, that country has been receiving more than $1 billion a year from Washington. The irony is that these funds are ostensibly in appreciation for Pakistan’s help in combating the very militants they are secretly helping. The leaked documents, put out by WikiLeaks, suggest that Pakistan, while loudly proclaiming itself as a trusted ally of the United States, allows their ISI to have direct contact with the Taliban in secret strategy sessions, whose purpose is to organize networks of militant groups that fight against American and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders. The network of Pakistani assets and collaborators is said to extend from the Pakistani tribal belt along the Afghan border, through southern Afghanistan, and all the way to the capital, Kabul. The information contained in the leaked papers comes from raw intelligence and threat assessments gathered from the field in Afghanistan. Naturally not all of it can be verified since official clandestine agencies are hardly likely to be forthcoming, but many of the reports rely on sources that rated as reliable by the military. None of this exactly new, of course! Reports describing how Pakistani intelligence has been working alongside Al Qaeda to plan attacks have been around for a long time. Even US senators and congressmen have cautioned that Pakistan’s militant groups and Al Qaeda are working together; and are being guided by the ISI. Sure, American government officials have expressed anger at Pakistan’s unwillingness to confront insurgents who launched attacks near Pakistani border posts, moving freely across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border; and then retreating to Pakistani territory, where they find a safe haven to regroup and plan fresh attacks. What puzzles many ordinary Americans – and infuriates Indians – is that, in spite of being presented with growing evidence of Pakistani skulduggery and the frustrations of American soldiers on the ground, the US administration routinely comes out with rosy public pronouncements of Pakistan as an ally. It’s all about political expediency, of course. The US military needs Pakistan’s permission and cooperation to sustain a drone campaign targeting Al Qaeda havens near the frontier. Moreover, the most feasible way to resupply US and NATO troops in Afghanistan is through routes that cross Pakistan to Afghanistan. Therefore it should not come as a surprise that, during a very recent visit to Islamabad, Hillary Clinton was all bonhomie, praising the Pakistani government and pledging a further $500 million in development aid. The painful reality is that the US has realised that the war in Afghanistan is not winnable in the conventional sense. It has also dawned on the White House that President Obama’s public declaration that US troops will start coming home after July 2011 was perhaps premature and over-optimistic. The US is desperately looking for a face-saving exit strategy from Afghanistan; and Pakistan is happy to oblige as long as it is left alone to subvert the legitimate government in Afghanistan and install its own puppets. After all, Pakistan has made no secret of its ambition to achieve what it calls “strategic depth” against its number one enemy, India. In war and politics, the only ethics that apply are those of expediency and self interest.
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