Seemingly end of Pakistan-USA love affair

Pakistan has always been attracted to USA since its independence. When India elected to be alienate itself with the erstwhile USSR after independence form the British rule in 1947, the Americans turned to Pakistan, not for Pakistan sake but for its own interests in the region. And since then the relations between the two countries have seen many ups and downs.

Perhaps the relations were at their best during the days of the Presidents Ayub Khan and Kennedy. President Ayub was given a memorable welcome when he visited the USA in early 60s that people still cherish those memories. His visit was followed by that of Mrs Kennedy and the US vice president Johnson. Johnson during his visit to Karachi picked up an ordinary camel driver Bashir and invited him on a state visit to USA and personally received him on the airport.

Pakistan joined SEATO and CENTO, two infamous organizations which were basically to woo the Russians. But the first cracks in very friendly relations appeared when during the 1965 Pak-India war, the USA abandoned its CENTO/SEATO ally Pakistan and elected to side with India. In 1971, while Pakistan played an important role to pave way for the first ever visit of the US president to China, Pakistan in the same year was yet again abandoned by the USA during the Pak-India war in East Pakistan.

The Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1980 brought USA closer to Pakistan yet again and it was Pakistan’s involvement with the freedom fighters of Afghanistan aided by the USA that forced the Russians to leave Afghanistan after almost eight years of bitter war. THE USA soon after the Russian withdrawal, instead of supporting the Afghan freedom fighters to build their tattered country, abandoned both Afghanistan and Pakistan, which later led to the rise of Taliban in Afghanistan.

Then came 9/11 and this time the USA came to Pakistan by the famous “Are you with us or not” threat. Ex-President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf is on record in saying that Richard Armitage had threatened Pakistan of dire consequence if Pakistan did not support the USA. And from then on the pressure by successive US governments never subsided and they continued to ask Pakistan to do more, more and yet more to safeguard the US interests only.

Pakistan continued to safeguard the US interests by doing more and by keeping its own interests in the back yard. This approach of appeasing and pleasing the USA cost Pakistan some 35,000 lives in suicide bombings, drone attacks from the USA under the garb of hitting Taliban positions in Pakistan besides incurring a loss of some $ 70 billion due to destruction of infrastructure. The so called War on Terror had been terrorising Pakistan since 9/11 more than it did the common American. Ordinary Pakistanis died on streets, mosques and other places when the suicide bombers hit those who had nothing to do with the War on Terror, while the ordinary Americans slept peacefully in their homes in the USA.

Now that the NATO forces, or the US Forces in fact, have failed to make any headway with all its might, technology intensive forces backed by sophisticated war planes, cruise missiles and predator drones in defeating the clumsily looking, shabbily dressed and ill equipped Taliban, the USA has no face left to show to its people. Afghanistan has turned out to be a bloodier and humiliating battle ground for the American troops than Vietnam.

In order to extricate “honourably” the USA badly needs a scapegoat to throw the blame of its ability to control Afghanistan – and it has a readymade “ally” in the form of Pakistan to do so. Having fought the US War on Terror on behalf of the USA, Pakistan has suffered heavily since USA came into Afghanistan. Yet in the almost end game, it is made to stand ALONE to bear the brunt of the USA for being responsible for the USA defeat in Afghanistan. How very ironic that a modern and most powerful army of the world is stands defeated having made no headway in rooting out the Taliban, is blaming a far smaller country than itself with far lesser number of troops than it has, is blaming this small country for its defeat.

The recent trade of accusations of linking Pakistan with attacks on US embassy and NATO HQ in Kabul is perhaps the same tactics to bully Pakistan or even attack Pakistan and to arouse a world reaction and response against Pakistan the same way it did when it coerced the world to believe that the Iraqis have WMDs and needed to eliminated before those WMDs were used against Israel. Everyone now around the globe understands that the USA lied to the whole world and even to its own people by misleading them and making them believe something which was not true. Even the Americans have started to object the 9/11 drama and the internet is replete with research works carried out by none other than the Americans, who believe that the 9/11 was a hoax and that the entire drama was engineered.

Even the killing of OBL in a night raid near the city of Abbottabad in May earlier this year is not being believed by many, including the Americans. The operation that left one stealth helicopter crashed was hurriedly completed and the body of “slain” OBL was thrown into the sea without any proof provided to the world that it was really OBL who was killed in the Abbottabad compound. While gory pictures of those killed in the compound were released in the media that of OBL was not published on the flimsy excuse that it was in very bad shape and airing it would have disturbed the people. This hushed up operation leaves much to ponder and doubt the truth in the whole operation.

Now at a time when the US elections are nearing, the USA is in a desperate need to save its face and more desperately wants a scapegoat to bear the responsibility of its defeat. It’s military is creating grounds yet again like the OBL operation to entangle Pakistan in assisting the Haqqani Group that they believe was behind the recent attacks in Kabul. This is despite the fact that the Taliban based in Kabul have already accepted the responsibility of such attacks. Like the infamous Al Qaeda, which only exits in US news, the Haqqani Group is yet another brainchild of the Americans to start yet another front of hostilities with Pakistan.

Many now have reason to believe that since 9/11 till this date, the entire drama was well planned and conducted by the USA to finally march into Pakistan to take over its nuclear arsenal, for Pakistan is the only Muslim country to have this capability and naturally the “peace loving USA” who bombed Japan twice with A-Bombs in WW-II suddenly feels that countries like Pakistan are not mature enough to possess these weapons as these could be used immaturely to destabilise the world peace. Was the USA immature too in 1945?

The days ahead are dangerously uncertain as hype is being created by the US and its media to accuse Pakistan of its involvement in Afghan affairs and in hindering the US efforts to stabilise Afghanistan before its draw down form it by 2014. The blame game has brought the last of the love affair between the two countries, which was at its peak in early 2000s and it seems that both he countries have finally come to part ways. The US forces will go away from Afghanistan one day, humiliated, but it would leave Pakistan to bear the fallout yet again as it once did when the US abandoned Afghanistan after the Russian exit.

The Americans will continue to sleep peacefully as they have never witnessed a war in their own country, but Pakistan will have to suffer for many years from now for having sided the USA in its War on Terror. 

Pakistan has never gained in the long run from its so-called friendship with the USA. USA always “befriended” with Pakistan for short term for the realization of its own gains and after that turned away. This uncertain US attitude made President Ayub Khan write his book “Friends – not Masters” which professed the same US mind-set. The US always wanted to be a master as it now is trying to do so. It wants its own interests safe guarded with no regard to Pakistan’s interests. It is time now that Pakistan must safe guard its own interest and disregard that of USA as Pakistan has gained nothing even after sacrificing so much to assist USA in its War on Terror and safeguarding US interests only.

The current US warning that Pakistan must choose between America and Haqqani is a God sent opportunity to choose neither. It’s time now that Pakistan must align itself with China as China has always been a friend – a friend in need and has never bullied Pakistan for the sake of its own interests. 


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The universal 007 with a license to kill
Paving way for the end game
The cat is finally out

Posted in: Relations,War on Terror