* Maleeha Lodhi says Pak-US relationship will run into problems if Washington fails to dispel Islamabad’s concerns about new Afghan strategy
* Ahmed Rashid says US needs to articulate a political strategy that includes India and Pakistan
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama must complement his Afghan security strategy with a political plan and address Pakistan’s concerns, particularly vis-à-vis India, both in the immediate and the post-US troop pullout perspectives, top experts said while discussing imperatives of an effective way forward.
Sharing their evaluation of the new US plan with the Council on Foreign Relations, analysts also cautioned against any unilateral moves that may spell further difficulties for Islamabad as it struggles with consequences of the eight-year old Afghan war.
Under the revamped strategy Obama unveiled early this month, Afghanistan will see a surge of 30,000 American and 7000 NATO troops in the coming months to contain a Taliban insurgency. The summer of 2011 has been set as the milestone when the international forces will start handing over control to Afghan forces and begin the withdrawal process.
Current scholar at Woodrow Wilson Centre and former ambassador to the US, Maleeha Lodhi, observed that reliance on military has meant that Obama’s plan is accompanied by near silence on a political strategy.
“This assumes that a military solution can be successfully applied to Afghanistan, without addressing the political causes of the growing insurgency, especially Pashtun alienation,” said Dr Lodhi
“Military escalation in Afghanistan and the expansion of aerial strikes in Pakistan is dangerous for Pakistan, which is already confronted with mounting security challenges, a consequence, not a cause, of the insurgency in Afghanistan,” she said.
She was referring to a wave of retaliatory bombings Pakistan is facing in the wake of its two major anti-militant operations in tribal areas this year. Obama has offered Pakistan an economic and strategic partnership but wants Islamabad to spread the anti-militant campaign to the North Waziristan tribal area along the Afghan border.
Essential Partnership: “President Obama has described the partnership with Pakistan as being “inextricably linked” to success in Afghanistan. Unless this critical partner’s doubts and concerns about the new plan are dispelled and Washington is prepared to modify its strategy accordingly, the relationship will only run into more problems,” said Dr Lodhi.
Strategy: Ahmed Rashid, a noted author and journalist stressed that “the US needs to articulate a political strategy that draws India and Pakistan in with its plans and, despite Indian objections, puts pressure on New Delhi to be more accommodating toward Pakistan.”
At the same time, the US should bolster support for the elected government in Pakistan, he said.
Washington Atlantic Council’s South Asian Director Shuja Nawaz said that Pakistan could play a key role in helping fracture the Afghan Taliban alliance by persuading the Haqqani group to join the government in Kabul or send surrogates instead. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has already been reported to be willing to strike a deal with Karzai, said Nawaz. Today, the allies need to build the willing support of Pakistan and other regional players to help Afghanistan stand on its own feet. If they do not complete the job they began in Afghanistan, the world will be left less safe than it was when they went into the region in 2001.
“Unless there is some behind-the-scene understanding on this count, Pakistan may not be able to live up to Obama’s expectations. Ideally, India and Pakistan should join hands to stabilise Afghanistan, but someone needs to facilitate that kind of an arrangement. Obama has the stature, potential, and vision to play that role,” said Nawaz. app
Source:dailytimes.com.pk/
No comments:
Post a Comment