Zafar Hilaly

The reason why we feel reassured by the presence of big brother US around the corner in Afghanistan is the fear that the Taliban may actually prevail if succour in the form of someone with an open cheque book and appropriate weaponry was not available to compensate for the destabilisation caused to society and the economy

General Kayani was being polite
when he said that Pakistan and the US have different perceptions when it comes to Afghanistan. Actually, their respective perceptions are not merely different, but antithetical. In brief, Pakistan’s main concerns are: the danger posed to its security by an unfriendly Afghanistan in the west allied to a hostile India in the east; the threat of extremism emanating from Afghanistan to our way of life and irredentist Afghan claims to Pakistan’s territories. The US, on the other hand, is least troubled by India obtaining a strategic advantage over Pakistan by allying with an inimical Afghanistan. In fact, Washington has quietly promoted an enhanced Indian stake in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the Indian intelligence agencies operating out of the four Indian consulates in Afghanistan and other sub-offices, including the newly opened consulate in Zahidan, Iran, are busy reportedly funding terrorist operations against Pakistan. So much so that, as a former Indian diplomat remarked, even the Americans seemed peeved with the Pentagon spokesman going so far as to demand ‘transparency’ regarding Indian actions. Apart from this isolated expression of concern, the US remains by and large undisturbed about the threat such activities may pose to Pakistan’s security. Furthermore, if the US is worked up over the inroads that extremism has made in Pakistani society, its concern arises from the fear that al Qaeda may find a hospitable environment in Pakistan rather than worry about the lethal impact of Talibanisation on our mores, religion and democracy.

In view of the deep cleavages between Pakistan and American perceptions and interests in the region, including the adoption by the US of Delhi as its strategic partner, why is it that many here, including the establishment, are so opposed to an American withdrawal and make no secret of their preference that America remain in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future?

The reason most frequently advanced is the fear that if the Americans depart, without ensuring that an effective and acceptable Afghan government is in place to manage matters, another civil war would ensue and Pakistan may once again be saddled with millions of Afghan refugees. Indeed, a struggle for the control of Afghanistan will occur until power, like water, finds its natural equilibrium.

The belief that an Afghan ‘national’ army would emerge in due course, after appropriate American or Indian training, to take on the Taliban and ensure stability is the height of naivety. To begin with, the Afghan army would hardly be truly ‘national’ if it is composed, as it is today, of only one or two of the several ethnic groups in the country, and the officer corps is overwhelmingly Tajik. The chances are that such an army would be regarded as as much a foreign force by Afghans of the opposing ethnic group as the Americans are today.

However, the underlying reason for our wanting the Americans to stay in Afghanistan is somewhat different from those identified above. Nor is it merely that Pakistan desperately needs the US to fund an expensive war that has virtually knocked the bottom out of the economy at a time when global recession has played havoc with our textile exports.

The reason why we feel reassured by the presence of big brother US around the corner in Afghanistan is the fear that the Taliban may actually prevail if succour in the form of someone with an open cheque book and appropriate weaponry was not available to compensate for the destabilisation caused to society and the economy.

This sense of foreboding and a lack of confidence is the result of years of bad governance, corruption, injustice and just about every other failing is it possible to imagine on the part of successive governments. Extremists would not have stood a chance had those who have led this country been able to live up to the very modest expectations of a hapless population. Resultantly, our leaders have lost the trust of the nation and now whatever they say or promise is considered another vow that will inevitably be broken.

In addition, there is the tendency in man “to believe those who they do not know because they have not been deceived by them”. Hence the Taliban, who are a novelty, offered to the disgruntled masses rough but ready justice and a way out of the current morass. The fact that the Taliban made out a more plausible case for having God on their side than our unfeeling but very worldly Prado-loving leaders is another reason why they were able to sell their ideological wares to an angry populace.

But much of all this concerns the past and, more precisely, before the Taliban showed their true face in Swat. Hence, the establishment should learn to outlive the past. Admittedly, instead of a secular Turk who, when confronted by a similar challenge by the Ottoman counterparts of the Taliban, rose to scatter them, we only have a turkey as a leader, but we have learnt to adjust. The army has done wonders. The people are behind them. The nation is energised and by the looks of it primed for battle.

We seem ready and more than able, therefore, to defeat the extremists by dint of our own efforts. A victory with the help of outsiders would not be as satisfying or well received. Besides, there is no surer way of bringing out the best in the people than by only accepting the best as being true of them. And if our people have not as yet discovered what they can die for then, frankly, they will forever live in fear and trepidation of the next weird cult that emerges and seeks to impose on them its pernicious doctrines in the name of Islam.

In the circumstances, pleading with American leaders and shouting from the rooftops that the US should continue its occupation of Afghanistan for our sake is not merely unbecoming, it is demeaning. The American presence in Afghanistan is of little positive value to the battle that we are waging against extremism, indeed to the contrary. Besides, of what use is an army, be it the strongest in the world, when confronted by the invasion of an idea?

As for self-detonating proselytisers, who wish to inflict their perverse creed on an unwilling people, well trained anti-terror squads assisted by good intelligence should suffice in the urban areas while the army sorts out their leaders in the hills and valleys of the Hindu Kush. The US presence in Afghanistan only lends the Taliban cause a legitimacy and righteousness that it does not deserve but which, unfortunately, resonates with the people of not only the region of their provenance but also other areas of Pakistan. If there is any doubt on that score, anyone who has travelled unescorted to these areas will vouch for it.

The writer is a former ambassador. He can be reached at charles123it@hotmail.com