American policy helped ISI support killings of Americans

THE TIMES OF INDIA
30 September, 2011

Tarun Vijay

Finally the truth seems to be dawning on the 'best friends of Islamabad' in Washington. The Mike Mullen testimony before Congress last week showed the delayed milestones factor in US policy towards its most dollar hungry ally. It also exposed the flaw of blatantly self-centerednes in its foreign policy, particularly in its much-hyped 'war against terror'.

Mullen was considered the best friend of Pakistan's military junta and he visited them 27 times since 2008. He turned his face even when Pakistan sent Kasabs to Mumbai and didn't show any concern at Headley exposures.

His anxieties didn't increase seeing Pakistan hand in every act of terror occurring in India and elsewhere. He was fine till Kayani behaved as a serf waiting to take orders from him and the only moment when he felt he should see the truth and 'learn a lot more' about his best friends was the Pakistani hesitation to complete a previously agreed action against Haqqani network.

And its only after that, when the Pakistani 'best friends' bit the hand that fed them, Mullen said to the Congress with a sadness of a self deluded man faced with the truth, '"I am losing people, and I am just not going to stand for that". He added "I have been Pakistan's best friend. What does it say when I am at that point? What does it say about where we are?" Adm. Mullen acknowledges his approach towards Pakistan didn't yield the results he wanted.

"Each time I go ( to Pakistan ) I learn more," Mullen said. "But one of the things I learn is I have a lot more to learn."

After feeding Pakistan with billions of dollars, their outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen had to admit that the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate provided support to have American troops killed.

In other words it was the American money that helped kill the American troops.

And how many American homes were given the inconsolable grief due the the US's flawed Pakistan policy ? See the table reproduced below-

US Fatalities in and around Afghanistan

Details courtesy: US Fatalities In and Around Afghanistan

The irony in US-Pakistan relations has been exposed completely before the US people and there is a justifiable outcry to change their policy towards the 'world's biggest export oriented factory of hate and violence called Jihad'.

These Mullen admissions, delayed though, are going to change the Afghanistan policy of Washington too. Till now Americans were too dependent on Pakistan to sustain their Afghanistan operations and wanting to ensure that Kabu doesn't become a fertile ground for the Talibani terror network once they leve, they overlooked many of the glaring prrofs of Pakistan's involvement with terrorism. The attitude of compromise and yield before the ISI mischief's was so prevalent that US began negotiating with Taliban themselves, in a last ditch bid to buy peace at the cost of honour and deceiving the spirited resistance of the American troops who suffered heavy casualties in the Afghan war. It was like India negotiating with the infiltrator Pakistanis in Kargil after the Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrations were over.

Neither the American public nor the media accepted this chicanery and now that Mullen testimony has become public, more than Pakistanis, American rulers will have to explain their deceptive Pakistan policy that helped American marines getting eliminated in Afghanistan.

Pakistan hates America. Only the lure of the dollars keep their uniformed generals mum. The Chinese factor, silently getting deeper into the Pakistani soil and soul, was ignored by US.

When India protested 26/11, the second Mumbai attack, theChinese PLA presence in Pakistani Occupied Kashmir claimed by India, US didn't show sympathy with us. When Pakistan's interior minister said that China's enemy is Pakistan's enemy, desk officers of the US State Department took it as a disco fiesta, better to be forgotten. They obfuscated the basic fact of Pakistan's friendship with US and China, both running parallel to each other, that its only a deep rooted animosity towards India that makes Pakistan sail in two boats. Unless democratic India is supported as an equal partner in ensuring peace and power balance in the region, American interests too can't be protected. So far America has shown greater affinity with the dictatorial regimes than the democracies. Its time they change and have a genuine democratic push to eliminate terror and opportunistic power shift that will hamper growth and peace in our region in a devastating manner.

This scenario has another message too. In spite of our political upheavals , India is poised to play a greater role in the region in near future and the diminishing power reservoir of Washington must make us realize that destiny has carved a far more greater role for us than the US.