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After the OBL fiasco, the Pak Army was in the dumps and there was furore in Pakistan over the incompetence of the Pakistan Armed Forces. It had to do something to restore its image. And, as per form, the ISI salvaged the Armed Forces with its standard 'bag of tricks' - targeting foreign inimical assets and via assassination!!Pakistan rolls the dice, at what price?
Nayan Chanda | Oct 1, 2011, 12.00AM IST
The long-simmering US-Pakistan tension has now produced a full-blown crisis. With the daring attack on the US embassy in Kabul mounted with Pakistani connivance, if not support, their fundamental discord over the future of Afghanistan is now public. The confrontation has also offered the Pakistani military an opportunity to recover from its humiliation over the bin Laden killing and strengthen its hold over the country riding on anti-American nationalism.
The extraordinary allegations by one of Pakistan's friends, Admiral Mike Mullen, that the recent attacks on the US embassy in Kabul and other top Nato targets were conducted by the Haqqani network, "a virtual arm" of Pakistan's ISI, have met with angry Pakistani condemnation and warnings against any retaliatory US ground assault. The series of attacks followed by the assassination of a key peacemaker, former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, are not isolated incidents. In the developing endgame, these may be the opening rounds for the final battle for control of Kabul - or at least warning shots across the bow not to cut out Pakistani proxies from the post-war government in Kabul. (Islamabad has publicly complained about US peace talks with Taliban elements without Pakistani involvement.)
Pakistan seems to have concluded that with the American withdrawal approaching, ....... is the time to play their aces for achieving their dream of 'strategic depth' in Afghanistan. ....... The rise of a friendly Islamist government in Kabul would thwart any Indian attempts to win influence. Its privileged position could also give Islamabad leverage with China as it seeks to exploit Afghanistan's rich mineral and energy resources.
While Pakistan's fortune in Afghanistan is rising, it cannot hide the fact that the country has paid an enormous price in terms of human lives, international isolation, economic ruin and political instability. The show of solidarity by Saudi Arabian and Chinese officials in Pakistan is supposed to demonstrate the country's strength in facing down the US. In fact, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's fawning praise of China and claim of eternal friendship - "Your enemies are our enemies and your security is our security" - merely highlights the country's isolation and abject dependence on a foreign power.
China has indeed been a steadfast friend, from diplomatic backing to supplying Pakistan with blueprints of nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and fighter jets, and economic aid. But Pakistan ought to know that while China is happy to have a low-cost ally to hobble India's rise, it has its own global agenda. At critical junctures in Pakistan's history - like during the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971 - China has hidden behind rhetorical support and avoided costly entanglement. In 2008, though sitting on a pile of cash, China refused to offer credit to Pakistan, sending it on to the IMF. For all the flowery language of a "deeper than ocean" relationship, China's economic footprint in Pakis- tan remains tiny compared to the US, the country's largest aid giver. The loss of export earnings and remittances from the US that could result from an open rupture would be devastating for Pakistan.
Pakistan's other foreign backer Saudi Arabia too has provided vital support in bankrolling Pakistan's nuclear programme, paying for purchase of US weapons, and supplied subsidised oil. Saudi ministers' presence in Islamabad for security consultations does demonstrate their concern for the only Sunni country with nuclear weapons. But given the kingdom's own deep security ties and economic links with Washington, it is unlikely to support Pakistan's anti-Americanism beyond a point.
As it challenges the US, Pakistan may take comfort from the fact its growing nuclear arsenal would deter anyone from pushing it militarily. But a nation does not live by nukes alone. Similarly, its sponsorship of terrorist groups - from Lashkar-e-Taiba to the Haqqani network - may provide it with unconventional arms against its enemies. But the generals would do well to remember that their Islamist militant partners of today, especially among the Pashtuns, may have different dreams.
Pakistan rolls the dice, at what price? - The Times of India
Mike Mullen only told the truth stating that the terrorists are but an extension of the real terror organisation - ISI. It is obvious that Pakistan and Pakistanis are not pleased!
If indeed an anti-West Islamist regime takes over in Kabul, President Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski plan that theey envisaged when they began providing covert support to the Afghan mujahideen through Pakistan in 1979 would be one of the master failure and exposing the US to greater danger than the Soviet Union since terrorist are an invisible force with a powerful juju that defies rational behaviour - religion, while the Soviet Union was a credible physical entity with a rational, if indeed an inimical, ideology.
China is Pakistan's all weather friend. However, as I have repeatedly mentioned, China has never come to Pakistan's assistance in times of national crisis as in the wars with India, even though China has been quick with meaningless pious platitudes that have done nothing good for Pakistan.
China has given military aid in the form of lethal toys, but she has been tight fisted when Pakistan was in dire necessity of hard cash. China knows its onions and does not part with cash since hard cash outflow will not power China's industry or economy while military toys and constructional work will generate Chinese growth and create jobs for the Chinese people.
Saudi Arabia has salvaged Pakistan many a time with hard cash and subsidised oil and will be ready to assist a 'Muslim Brother', but only to a point since it is too embroiled as the US' cats paw in the Middle East.
Such a pitiable state Pakistan is in that, one her own, she is a non entity in the comity of nations, and instead requires to piggy back foreign powers to remain relevant.
True that the bludgeoning nuclear arsenal is a deterrent to designs to send Pakistan to Kingdom Come, but then one does not require a war to put Pakistan in their place.
Pakistan has herself created the weapon that could be used against her - her terrorists who are also veering crazily to be reckonable, What could be better if they are assisted in their aspiration to have their own countries carved out of Pakistan?!!
The plum is ripe and about to drop with a slight nudge from in