Why is USA targeting Pakistan?

[Neo]

Why is USA targeting Pakistan?

By Yasmeen Ali

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing.

Pakistan has taken hits in recent reports, being depicted as supporting terror. But this may be the United States' false tiger and not Pakistan's doing. The result of such discord could mean a fundamental change to South Asian diplomacy and relations.

The US has often resorted to presenting a diatribe against their supposed ally Pakistan. Repeatedly, the US has accused Pakistan of playing a double game, maneuvering, going behind the US's back to serve self interests.

The most recent has been quite hard hitting with Admiral Mike Mullen, the outgoing chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, accusing the Haqqani network of being a veritable arm of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and being responsible for not only the attack on US Embassy on Kabul but also the murder of Burhannudin Rabbani, the former Afghan president tasked with negotiating with the insurgents.

However, the US tends to forget that the interests of Pakistan and the US may diverge in the interests of each's national security.

The US has expected Pakistan to risk its own national security at the expense of US's. Pakistan has done this repeatedly. Allowing drone attacks, causing the deaths of thousands of innocent lives, and according to the Economic Times, suffered a loss of US$68 billion since becoming an ally to the US in the "war of terror". In return, Pakistan has received $15-17 billion, a figure which includes reimbursements of $8.2 billion through the Coalition Support Fund.

These funds are not assistance but a payback of debts incurred according to the Economic Survey 2010-11. However, in all this period of being allies against "war on terror", not once has the US endangered its own national security or economy, for Pakistan.

Tom Englehart spells out in his article, Details of Secret Pact Emerge: Troops stuck in Afghanistan till 2024 carried by Alternet on August 23rd, 2011.

Englehart quotes Ben Farmer of British Telegraph that the Barack Obama administration is negotiating a "pact" with the Afghan government, to leave American "trainers", thousands of them, as well as special operations forces, and US Air Force elements settled in Afghanistan air bases that the Pentagon has built until 2024.

The US is now fighting a war Obama promised to end in his election campaign and to bring the boys home. A promise that was not only never kept but things have gone from bad to worse with the escalating war and regional issues.

With elections in the US approaching, he needs to give a reason why he failed to deliver on this most important promise. Replacing al-Qaeda with the Haqqanis and the supposed involvement and complicity of the ISI with the Haqqanis is the card to be played.

The only way out of this quagmire of accusations, counter-accusations, lies and deceit is an early withdrawal of American and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces from Afghanistan and an end to this war. Cooler, smarter heads in Washington must rule and drive home the point, as the problem is the occupying forces, not Pakistan.

Yasmeen Ali is a lawyer and university professor based in Lahore. She can be reached at yasmeen.a.9@gmail.com

Asia Times Online :: SPEAKING FREELY: Why is USA targeting Pakistan?