Pakistan
has always been unlucky as far as friendship with the US is concerned. Each
time, the US uses Pakistan and later abandons it without any guilt or remorse.
The
history of President Donald Trump’s statements is a clear indication of his
upsetting attitude towards Pakistan. Long before the presidency race, Trump had
worrisome sentiments about Pakistan, suggesting to pull-back on aid stating,
“They are not friends of ours, (There are) plenty of other terrorists in
Pakistan, we know that.” He also called Pakistan “a vital problem, because they
have a thing called nuclear weapons”. Similarly, in an interview, President
Trump favoured keeping 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to contain Pakistan and
keep an eye on it up close. In several other interviews, he kept on mentioning
the unusual concern over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and their safety.
Furthermore,
President Trump also believes that Pakistan is providing safe havens to the
Taliban and other terrorist organisations. Back in 2012, Trump tweeted, “When
will Pakistan apologise to us for providing a safe sanctuary to Osama Bin Laden
for 6 years”. Ironically, even now as the President of the United States, he is
fed the same lies by the Pentagon. The ground reality is very different than
the rhetoric which the Trump administration is selling to its public and the
world. These allegations do not prove the support of terrorists by Pakistan and
we must not give in to any pressure and accept something we are not guilty of.
History
shows that Pakistan has always lent a hand, right from providing Badhbair
airbase to USA during the Cold War to fight against the Soviet army in
Afghanistan and to fight the War on Terror post-9/11. This practical support was
in line with the ethos of friendship and in the greater interests of global
peace and security. However, the unwavering support in all international
security matters was never taken in the same spirit; rather, Pakistan was left
alone in the hour of need.
Ever
since the first Afghan war, Pakistan threw all its available resources
including its infrastructure behind the US forces but they still took advantage
of the hospitality extended by former President General Musharraf. The US
expanded the CIA network in Pakistan against the norms of friendship. The trust
of Pakistan was betrayed however; when the US unilaterally used drones to
presumably destroy hideouts of terrorists in Pakistan. The drone attacks caused
collateral damage in terms of killing innocent people. These drone attacks thus
caused ripples amongst the people of Pakistan, as it was considered to be a
threat to its sovereignty. This in turn, influenced the minds of innocent
people who opted to join terrorist organisations to take revenge for the loved
ones they had lost.
Interestingly,
we were great friends when Pakistan was assisting two war ventures undertaken
by the US. There was no ‘do more’ demand, rather, both FBI and CIA were
praising Pakistan at all levels. However, with the failure of the US strategy
in Afghanistan, successive US administrations started asking Pakistan to ‘do
more’ to cover up their own failures in the South Asian region.
I
remember 5-hour long meetings with Mr Mohammad Hanif Atmar, the Interior
Minister of Afghanistan at the time, to create a strategy for AF-Pak
cooperation to share intelligence on terrorists. We (the two interior
ministers) signed an agreement to fight terrorism with a common strategy and a
commitment to open immigration posts on the Pak-Afghan border. Mr Muller had
flown all the way from the US to sign as witness. Unfortunately, later, this
agreement was not honoured by Afghanistan and President Karzai eventually
scraped it. President Donald Trump however, must know that Afghanistan does not
want to work with Pakistan, as Mr Ashraf Ghani wants to side with his new
puppet-master, PM Modi of India.
It
is very unfortunate to see that President Trump has chosen this moment, when
there is political polarisation in Pakistan and the Pakistan Army is fighting its
heart and soul against the terrorists. Moreover, the Indian inimical statements
on CPEC are no more a secret. PM Modi has become aggressive against China and
has deliberately increased its forces on the Chinese boarder. This move got the
Indians a touch of response by China when nearly 50 Indian soldier lost their
lives for violating the border. The latest threats by President Trump are
clearly driven by the US-Indian nexus serving its own cause.
I
believe that the threat of Donald Trump on South Asia is three-pronged; it is a
threat to Pakistan, Iran and China at the same time (without their names being
mentioned). The chest-thumping against Pakistan will automatically bring more
suffering to Afghanistan, as threats to Pakistan will further deteriorate the
security situation in Afghanistan.
Pakistan
does have a right to ask President Trump as to who converted Afghanistan into a
war zone. The Afghan-Pak border is a war zone because of the US allowing
disgruntled criminals including Osama bin Laden and Yousaf Ramzi to become
monsters. Where is the fault of Pakistan? Despite making countless sacrifices,
are we to blame for deciding to be your ally during the time of war?
How
can President Trump forget that CIA created the infamous Haqqani network along
with Abu Sayyaf groups? All these groups reside in Afghanistan and Afghanistan
is not under the control of Pakistan but under the Afghan government and US
military. It is strange to ask Pakistan to do more when administratively and
militarily, the area which is harbouring terrorism is under your control. Mr
President do not put the blame of the failures of the Afghan Government in
cooperating with Pakistan to stop the flow of terrorists from Pak-Afghan
border. We are not a nation to be thrown under the bus for sacrificing our
soldiers and innocent people in fighting someone else’s war. We are not just
facing the repercussions of the war against terror but also the incompetency of
our neighbor Afghanistan, which has caused us a great deal of loss by not
cooperating with us in securing the porous border.
President
Trump, please see the historical facts of how Pakistan has made sacrifices
during this war on terror which was basically your war, which we fought with
our blood. Please rethink and do not commit the mistake which was committed by
President Bush and Obama in Iraq and Syria.
President
Trump, buy peace for South Asia, as selling war would otherwise engulf the
whole world. Your recent policy statement vis-à-vis Afghanistan and Pakistan
would further fuel the already prevalent hatred against the US. You can control
your drones and planes but you will not be able to control mind-sets and
radicalisation, which may erupt from this region like the expansion of Daesh
worldwide.
Mr
President, come with an open heart and let us take forward your wish to create
a common strategy against the common enemy. Let the people of Pakistan utter
your name with positivity, to be remembered as a peace lover, and not as a
supporter of wars and threats. It’s a tested truth that winning peace is way
harder than winning a war. At this moment, it is for you to decide what is it
that you want to win; peace or war?
The article has been published in “THE
NATION” on August 24, 2017
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