EYE ON PAKISTAN
America’s Pakistan policy has been
a failure, US-India study confirms
SUMAN GUHA MOZUMDER
America’s foreign policy relating to Pakistan has been a
failure for the last decade and Washington needs to have a
new approach that must have ‘heavy conditioning’ of
American arms transfer to Islamabad, said Robert D
Blackwill, Henry A Kissinger Senior Fellow for US Foreign
Policy at the Council for Foreign Relations, and former US
ambassador to India.
He was speaking at the release of the first ever US-India
joint study group report, titled The United Statesand India:
AShared Strategic Future, in New York late last month.
The report was prepared by a group co-chaired by
Blackwill and former Indian ambassador to the United
States Naresh Chandra, who is chairman of India’s
National Security Advisory Council.
The report recommended that the US should lend strong
support for India’s peaceful rise as a crucial component of
Asian security and stability.
Blackwill said the views of US and Indian experts regarding the US-India strategic future were unanimous.
‘The US strategy regarding Pakistan, for the last decade
has failed,’ he said. ‘The strategy basically was that if the US
provides more military and economic aid to Pakistan, it
will affect Pakistan’s support for terrorist groups that attack
both India and the United States. For instance that strate-
gy in Afghanistan has failed. The report calls for a new
strategy, including heavily conditioning all future arms
transfer by US to Pakistan, conditioning it on Pakistan
army to acting vigorously against terrorist groups that tar-
get terrorist groups that target both the US and India.’
The report, he continued, ‘argues that Pakistan is of vital
interest to both India and the United States because firstly
of its nuclear weapons and secondly Pakistan may be in
secular decline, which is bad for both India and the US.’
The report suggested that the US and India should dis-
cuss ‘in the most private possible way’ contingencies
regarding the future of Pakistan, including the possibility
of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons getting into the hands of ter-
rorist groups.
US-Pakistan fallout: Clinton in damage-control mode
AZIZ HANIFFA
Obviously concerned over the unraveling
United States-Pakistan relationship,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got into
major diplomatic mode last week, with the
White House taking a similar cue to mollify Islamabad that it was still an indispensable ally and imperative for the war on terror.
During two separate press stakeouts after
her meetings with the Nigerian and
Egyptian foreign ministers, Clinton faced
questions about whether the US-Pakistan
relationship was down the tubes. Even
when pressed, she refused to endorse outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Admiral Mike Mullen’s public assertions
that the Haqqani Network is ‘a veritable
arm’ of Pakistan’s Inter Services
Intelligence.
‘I would certainly urge people to look at
the entirety of Admiral Mullen’s testimony,’
Hillary said, when pressed. ‘He did raise
serious questions, which our government
has raised with the Pakistanis about the
continuing safe haven for terrorists that
strike across the border in Afghanistan
against Afghans, Americans, NATO-ISAF
(North Atlantic Treaty Organization-
International Security Assistance Force)
troops, civilians working there, as well as
within Pakistan.’
Clinton added: ‘Admiral Mullen also said
that this is a very critical consequential
relationship. We have a lot of interests that
are in common, most particularly the fight
against terrorism. So we are certainly mak-
ing clear that we want to see an end to safe
havens and any kind of support from any-
where for terrorists inside Pakistan, and we
also want to continue to work to put our
relationship on a stronger footing.’
Earlier, when she appeared with the
Egyptian foreign minister, Clinton was
asked similar questions about the ISI and
Mullen’s public finger-pointing.
She said, ‘As you may know, I had a very
High school students at an anti-America demonstration in Karachi, September 28
ATHAR HUSSAIN/REU TERS
long meeting with Pakistan’s Foreign
Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, a week ago…
and we discussed the urgency in the wake
of the attack on our embassy in Kabul and
on the NATO-ISAF headquarters for us to
confront the threat posed by the Haqqani
Network. It was certainly a threat to the
United States, but it was also a threat to
Pakistan, to Afghanistan, and to anyone
who stands against terrorism.’
Thus, she said, ‘You will see a lot of work
taking place as we try to determine how
best to confront this mutual threat. And it’s
important to realize that while it’s not
always easy, the United States and Pakistan
have vital strategic interests that converge
in the fight against terrorism. And Pakistan
faces a very real threat. They have suffered
far more casualties, civilians and military
alike. It is their mosques and markets and
police stations and homes that have been
bombed and attacked. So, we are commit-
ted to working with Pakistan to confront
this threat, and we’ve had a lot of tangible
results from our cooperation… Most
recently, the Pakistanis helped to roll up Al-
Qaeda’s number two. They have been help-
ing us continue to dismantle the Al Qaeda
network that is inside Pakistan. So I have
no argument with anyone who says this is a
very difficult and complex relationship,
