Pakistan has to decide. If it supports the Taliban, all aid that its economy depends on will be cut off.
BANGALORE: This is regarding the article “Divided by the lip” by Lt-Gen (r) Asad Durrani (October 24). The writer states that “Strategic Depth is a sound concept though not merely a geographic or a spatial notion”. Why does a nuclear-armed country need a poor, failed state like Afghanistan as “strategic depth”? This notion made little sense in the 1980s and early 1990s before India and Pakistan were recognised as countries which have nuclear weapons. Now, there cannot be open war between India and Pakistan. Even Kargil did not expand into a full-blown war.
As for the general’s arguments, Afghanistan may be a landlocked country but Pakistan is not the only link to the outside world for Afghanistan. The big player here is Iran and it despises the Taliban. And as a result Tehran ends up not being particularly fond of Pakistan either, since the latter supports the Taliban. India built a port in Iran purely to reduce Afghanistan’s dependence on Pakistan. With India having developed military and economic muscle, it has the potential to support anti-Taliban forces inside Afghanistan, and with Iran’s blessings. Pakistan has also alienated all of Afghanistan’s neighbours, most of whom also hate the Taliban. Pakistan has to decide. If it supports the Taliban, all aid that its economy depends on will be cut off.
Anoop H Prasanna
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2010.
