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Pakistan and the Rewards of Helping the U.S. Campaign
By Omer bin Abdullah
23/10/2001
"We too believe the Kashmir issue is central to the relationship," Secretary of State General Colin Powell told reporters following talks with President Pervez Musharraf on October 16th. The word "central" was perhaps the only concession to cool frayed tempers in Pakistan, where some thought that it was "a reiteration of the position the American state has taken in regard of the dispute in Jammu and Kashmir." Even Kashmir's All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) welcomed Powell's remarks.
But even before Powell landed in New Delhi from Islamabad, Indian ministry of external affairs spokesperson Nirupama Rao declared her government's disagreement with his remarks, adding that "terrorism" sponsored by Pakistan in Kashmir, and not Kashmir itself, was the problem.
"We are not planning to discuss Kashmir, no matter what General Powell has to say," information minister Sushma Swaraj told a TV channel in a discussion on the visit.
India's public stance was not without significance because Powell had a different declaration to make the next day in New Delhi: "The United States and India are united against terrorism, and that includes the terrorism that has been directed against India."
The General's stance on Kashmir only echoed President George W. Bush's statement given on the eve of his departure for China, October 17th: "You mark my words, people are going to get tired of the war on terrorism, and by the way, it may take more than two years. There's a variety of theaters. So long as anybody is terrorizing established governments, there needs to be a war. And so I've asked - you said one or two years - I envision something taking longer than that. The war on terrorism could last one or two years.
"Now, maybe the Afghan theater will be shorter than that,'' Bush added. "Who knows? But we're patient.''
The U.S. has never stated that the Indian-imposed administration in Kashmir is an illegal one, and that it violates U.N. resolutions. Thus, Powell's statement that "terrorism that has been directed against India" clearly means that the U.S. considers the quisling administration in the occupied territory as an "established" government.
Interestingly, on a mission that amounted to one of damage control, Powell backpedaled and told Indian leaders that Washington was concerned about Pakistani-inspired "terrorism" in Indian-occupied Kashmir and showed solidarity with India by equating the attacks on the U.S. with an October 1st assault in Srinagar, the Kashmiri capital, that killed more than 40 civilians.
Powell also made clear to the Indians that he had done some work on India's behalf while in Pakistan. A senior administration official traveling with Powell said that he conveyed to the Indians a pledge from Pakistan's president, Generla Pervez Musharraf, "to take steps to control or reduce extremism" in the country.
India has also been one of the few large nations making supportive comments about Bush's aspirations for a U.S. national missile defense plan. Understandably, Powell said he had floated several unspecified "ideas" on how India might further contribute to the antiterrorism coalition.
Understandably, when India attacked Pakistan across the Line of Control, Bush said, "India and Pakistan should stand down during our activities in Afghanistan," and as an afterthought added, "and for that matter, forever."
Clearly, the "damage control" that Powell had in mind did not include Pakistan.
Pakistan finds itself in a difficult position to take a stand. First, it is a Muslim country - a genre not favored by the right-wing Bush clique, and second, it is deeply in debt. Pakistan's total debt to the U.S. is about $3 billion and the Bush administration has agreed, so far, to reschedule payments of $379 million. Nothing has been forgiven, which was the big hope being sold to the Pakistani people after Musharraf surrendered to Bush.
Despite Bush's retraction, the crusade-like character of the war cannot be denied. In another act of Islamophobia, the Bush administration jettisoned morality and altered its Chechnya policy to favor Russia and recognized that the Russians have a right "to fight [the] terrorist threat."
Minutes before Powell's plane was preparing to land in Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who will visit the White House in November, held talks with Russian, Iranian, and Turkish interlocutors.
And right-wingers in the U.S. are harboring great hopes in India. The conservative
Wall Street Journal's deputy editorial features editor, Tunku Varadarajan, on September 19th, advised the U.S. would do well to encourage the formation of an anti-terror alliance between India, Israel, and Turkey: "In the long-term war against Islamic terrorism, these are the states in the region with a visceral need to vanquish Islamic fundamentalism, as well as the military capability to fight it. Importantly, they can be relied on to keep their resolve, for they will not be fighting as proxy combatants. Their separate wars against the expansionist forces of militant Islam predate that of the U.S."
Varadarajan added: "India, Israel and Turkey - collectively and, where necessary, discretely - can give Washington the sort of stable, unwavering comradeship in arms and ideas that President Bush [and, let's face it, his successors] will need, at least for another generation."
In addition, at a time when it has been welcomed as a member of the Islamophobic alliance, Pakistan's most reliable friend, China, which has branded the freedom movement in occupied East Turkestan (Xinjiang) as a "terrorist" action, is coming closer to its enemies.
Considering its isolation and suffering from the increasing level of worldwide Islamophobia, Pakistan, as usual, cannot accept just any solution, and may perhaps swallow the bitter pill advised by Powell that it should cool their rhetoric over Kashmir, respect the Line of Control, and avoid any military action there.
Pakistan was never rewarded or even thanked for its role in defeating the Soviet Union, and cannot now expect any laurels for fighting America's war in Afghanistan.
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