Round The World
New Delhi, 11 May 2010
Shahzad’s Plot
NEW FACET TO US-PAK TIES
By Monish Tourangbam
Research Scholar, School of
International Studies (JNU)
Faisal Shahzad, the man
charged with trying to blow up a
home-made bomb in Times Square, New York City is a Pakistan-born naturalized US
citizen. He
has confessed to links with the Tehrik-e-Taliban
or the Pakistani Taliban. He has admitted to receiving explosives training in Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold. US Attorney
General
Eric Holder confirmed that the suspect was working on the orders of the
Pakistani Taliban and that they financed the attempted bombing. This
failed terrorist attempt on US
soil is the second in the past six months after the unsuccessful bombing
of a US
airliner on
Christmas day.
Shahzad’s plot
tracing its steps back to Pakistan
has added a new dimension to the US-Pakistan ties on the ‘War on
Terror’.
American aid has flowed into the coffers of the Pakistani establishment
but
that has not seen any corresponding decrease of anti-Americanism in Pakistan.
More
than $3.5 billion in U.S.
economic and military assistance is in the pipeline, and a nearly $8
billion
International Monetary Fund agreement and a $3.5 billion World Bank
financing
package are pending. In fact, it is ironical that the increase of
American aid
into Pakistan
seems to be inversely proportional to its popularity in the Pakistani
mainland,
with anti-American sentiments at an all-time high.
Since its
independence, the South Asian country of Pakistan has depended on the
American state for its defence purposes. This was in large part driven
by its
insecurity vis-à-vis its larger neighbour and rival India.
Over the years, the defence
and foreign policy of Pakistan
has been shaped by its anti-India orientations and that accentuated its
closeness to the United
States in the wake of the Cold War.
Because
of its geostrategic location, Pakistan
became a frontline Muslim state and a part of the American bloc during
the Cold
War, joining many security blocs under the tutelage of the United States.
Since, Pakistan always expected guaranteed
assistance
from Washington mainly in the defence
sector
in return for being a frontline state for the US once
against Communism and now
against international terrorism. The US and Pakistan has undergone what
can be
called a ‘love-hate relationship’ but the geostrategic importance of
Pakistan
in the scheme of anti-Communism or anti-terrorism has never been ignored
and at
most times, America has placed
misplaced-trust on the Pakistani establishments to the detriment of
neighbouring India.
The American
investment in Pakistan
particularly in the defence sector since the advent of the Cold War has
greatly
strengthened the Pakistani military and intelligence leading to
ambiguous and
double-sided tactics of fighting terrorism. In the Pakistani scheme of
things,
certain groups (read the Kashmir-focused anti-India groups like the
Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba) are ignored, even nurtured as
serving a
strategic purpose in their traditional rivalry against India. A
favourable
narrative has been built around these groups and they have never been
branded
as enemies of the State.
But, evidence has
time and again pointed to the fact that these groups are intricately
linked to
the terror campaigns of the Afghan Taliban and the Al Qaeda. The US understands this and the official
line
demands a coordinated action on all these groups having bases or
sanctuaries in
Pakistan.
In fact, John
Brennan,
President Obama’s adviser on counter-terrorism, warned that the
Pakistani
authorities needed to maintain pressure on all the terrorist groups
operating
from its soil. But
the question is whether the
Americans will go the extra mile to ensure that the Pakistani
establishment is
sincere in its fight against the hydra-headed monster called terrorism.
The Times Square
incident and the suspect turning out to be a Pakistani-American raises
many
questions as to how the turn of events may actually impact America’s
‘War on
Terror’ and its ties with Pakistan in this pursuit. According to
sources,
Shahzad went
to
Waziristan with Mohammed Rehan, an activist of Jaish-e-Mohammed and was
believed to have received his training in a camp run by Qari Hussain (In
an
audio tape message Hussain has claimed the responsibility for the
attempted
attack) , a master trainer of suicide bombers.
The failed attempt at
Times Square has underscored the
active connivance of Pakistan-based Islamist groups in attacks against
the US mainland and
has thus brought forth
differences of opinion regarding America’s
anti-terror
policy and its ties with Pakistan. Some officials seem
to be
losing their patience with the sluggish nature of the Pakistani
establishment
in dealing with the terror machinery operating from the region and its
obsession with India
as the number threat. They favour the US going more unilateral in
this
campaign with the increase of drone attacks against militant hideouts
and more
military presence in the region.
On
the other hand,
others argue that it is premature to make conclusions about the kind of
cooperation being given by the Pakistani establishment. They seemed to
be
confident and optimistic that the flow of American aid and
well-channeled ties
are effective. They believed that there would no major change of policy
and
that the present strategy is effective. Anti-Americanism is a concoction
that
has been brewing for some time now in the heartland of Pakistan,
being
distributed free of cost through local mosques, madrasas and other forms
of
vitriolic literature. And worse still, anti-Americanism is in fashion,
not only
in Pakistan
but the intensity is high in this Muslim state. The US-Pakistan ties are
an
intriguing study at how a uni-dimensional relationship built around mere
strategic objectives can have serious fall-outs.
They have had the most
intense of official and diplomatic
channeling since the advent of the Cold War which coincided with the
independence of Pakistan.
But, the relationship has been based more on a supply-demand
perspective. Pakistan
has depended on the US
primarily for building its arsenal against
rival India.
On the other hand, the US decided to smoke together with a country like
Pakistan specifically for the kind of geostrategic importance that it
provided
in the fight against Communism and then in the campaign against
international
terrorism.
Apart from this, there are
hardly any similarities or
concurrence between the two. America
has functioned as a democracy since its inception while Pakistan,
has
been ruled by the military for almost half of its existence as an
independent State.
In contrast, India
and the US
despite
being described as “estranged democracies” during the Cold War had
enormous
stream of people-to-people contacts and other basic similarities which
could
not be ignored.
The seeds of
anti-Americanism have been sown in mainland Pakistan
and it
has even started sprouting in the forms of jihadists like Faizal
Shahzad. Only
drone attacks and military operations along the border with Afghanistan
cannot solve this menace. Islamic extremists in Pakistan
have woven the all-too familiar of West Vs Islam where only the
destruction and
devastation of countries such as the United States can bring
about the
Islamic Caliphate and this concoction is being fed to scores and scores
of
youngsters with disastrous consequences. Will the Times Square
episode lead to substantial change in the campaign against terrorism?
--INFA
(Copyright, India
News and Feature Alliance)
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