Just about everyone has weighed in on US accusations that the ISI is funding and training the Haqqani network. Now it’s the Taliban’s turn. A statement released by the Afghan Taliban on the Voice of Jihad website states unequivocally that the Haqqani network is controlled by the Taliban, not Pakistan. This statement further advised Pakistan to give up trying to please the US, whom it accused of deflecting blame on to Pakistan for their defeat in Afghanistan. A statement from the Taliban hardly counts as the kind of support Pakistan would have been hoping for and may, in fact, further suspicions that we are aiding the insurgency in Afghanistan. And the statement does nothing to prove or disprove whether we are working with the Haqqani network.
A string of statements by Pakistani officials has done nothing to allay the fear that we are playing both sides in Afghanistan. Interior Minister Rehman Malik accused the CIA of originally training and creating the Haqqani network, a remark that is true but neglects to mention that this was done with the willing cooperation of Pakistan and that it happened nearly 30 years ago when the two countries were training and arming militants to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Its relevance to the current situation is hard to see. It seems that pointing out past US support for the Haqqani network has become a talking point, as even Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar called them the CIA’s “blue-eyed boys”.
Trying to pin the blame on the US is not going to exonerate us. The Haqqani network is credibly accused of being behind attacks on the US in Afghanistan and we need to clarify our role in those attacks. If we have chosen not to take military action against the Haqqani network because of a lack of military capability, then that could be justified. However, what cannot be justified is to allow it to carry attacks across the international border in other countries, since that would risk Pakistan being labelled a sponsor of terrorism.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2011.
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The US also Accused Regime of Saddam Hussein, the nation of Iraq used, possessed, and made efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction (WMD). How Accurate was that? Did they find any when they invaded Iraq back in 2003? NONE! They need to shut up before the World War iii begins
a lame attempt to understate Taliban statement.
When the same Taliban own the responsibilties of the attacks inside Pakistan you take no time to accept them whole heartdly .Now when they are comming up with something in Haqqani's case all of the sudden you are puting a Qustion mark on that claim.Why ? ?
It just seems like a very naive comment on the situation. A potent depiction of what the US might want to say to us. The situation is not as simple as being all ears to what the US wants. If the US couldnt do it in the past decade, do you think attacking the Haqqanis will make our country better off. You might see more destruction. As far as the US created them arguments is concerned, yes they were created with our consent but they were abandoned when the US deemed fit leaving us to deal with them. US ran out of ideas on how to control them and much of the deaths here due to terrorism find their root in the "30 year ago" occurrence. More so, if exonerating ourselves, as nation states, is actually a concern, that millions of Afghanis, Iraqis and Pakistanis also deserve answers. And lastly, carrying out attacks in other countries is actually not justified whether its through some proxy group against the invading army or whether its against Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Vietnam, etc, etc