Why ‘revisit’ Pakistan-US ties?

We are playing hard to get, while US is threatening to squeeze flow of assistance & neither side is on stable ground.

Our many analysts have been enamoured for some time now with the need to ‘revisit’ Pakistan-US relations. The questions that are begging for answers are: why the urge to revisit these ties and why now? One development merits special mention. The truth appears to have, at long last, dawned on the powers that be in the Land of the Pure that our ‘strategic partner’ cares more about its own strategic goals than our piddling reservations. The unfortunate fact remains that we have nurtured the habit of first basing our calculations on purely superficial considerations and then feigning surprise when confronted with the facts of life.

Living nations study their histories with great care. They do this in the hope that this would enable them to steer clear of the mistakes they had committed in the past. Due to some unfathomable flaw in our make-up, we are prone to repeating our blunders. What is worse, we choose to put the blame of our failings on others or on providence.

A fleeting glance at recent history may not be out of turn. Post-9/11, the US administration posed the pointed question: are you with us or against us? Needless to say, Pakistan’s establishment instantly jumped onto the bandwagon. The attack on Afghanistan followed and we offered our ‘good offices’, our airspace and open-ended moral and logistic support, in that order. This was when we appeared to have lost our bearings, presuming we had some to begin with! The declared American objectives were to: a) destroy the al Qaeda network, whom it believed to be responsible for 9/11; and b) punish the Afghan leadership of the time for having afforded asylum to the al Qaeda leadership.

Sometime down the line, however, the US decided to unilaterally move the goalposts. The whole complexion of the war thereby changed. Little objection was evident from Pakistan. Little wonder, then, that after reverses in Afghanistan, US attention got riveted to ‘sanctuaries’ on Pakistani soil.

The war on terror was conveniently allowed to transmogrify into an open-ended conflict with no denouement in sight. Pakistan’s facade as a state was upgraded to that of a ‘belligerent state’. Those who matter in this land ought to have seen it coming. The question remains: how long can this country continue to take others’ irons out of the fire without burning its fingers in the process?

What is not clear is what our politicians aim to achieve. Are some of them trying to provoke a confrontation and if so, to what end? Or, alternatively, is this all a game of pelf? We are playing difficult to get, while our strategic ally is threatening to squeeze the flow of assistance and neither side appears to be on stable ground. American (and Nato) frustration with the unenviable situation in Afghanistan filters through loud and clear. The Afghan regime is joining in by levelling serious charges against Pakistan every now and then.

The stark choices facing us are becoming clear. Belabouring the country’s sacrifices in the cause of the war on terror is neither here nor there. Lost causes can hardly serve as handy crutches. The time for serious introspection is upon us. There is need to tote up the assets and liabilities. There is a need to carry out a serious exercise to arrive at a favourable cost-benefit ratio that ensures that our order of priorities is not awry. In the absence of such an exercise, planning of any kind would hardly be worth the effort.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2013.

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