The Washington Post’s New Article

Is The Washington Post’s new article inviting more problems to worry about?

On June 10, The Washington Post published an article claiming that America had found two bomb-manufacturing factories in Pakistan. According to this article, one factory was in a Miranshah girls’ school and the second in South Waziristan. Marc Grossman, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, made a video of these two locations and presented it to General Ashfaq Kayani and ISI Director General Pasha. They asked the generals to search these places. The article goes on to inform that Pakistan kept asking America to give it information so that it could attack the hiding places of the extremists, instead of America carrying out the attacks. Many people were against drone strikes on these two places as they were situated within residential areas where many innocent civilians could die from the strikes.

These videos were also shown to the congressional intelligence committees in the United States. Hilary Clinton pushed further on this issue by calling Prime Minister Yousaf Gilani and asking him to search these two places. On June 4, the Pakistani army found nothing when it entered and searched these areas. The article states that the extremists had departed from these places by the time the Pakistani army arrived there. The article claims that the Pakistani intelligence is aiding these extremists and it is for this reason that the United States attacked Abbottabad without consulting Pakistan. If they had informed the Pakistanis, they would also have entered an empty house in Abbottabad.

I do not know how much truth there is in this article. However, I do know that this article proves how paranoid and worried the American officials are. One gets the impression that the relations between the United States and Pakistan are not only unstable, but have deteriorated considerably. Panetta visited Pakistan on Friday and met with General Kayani. Panetta will soon be the U.S. secretary of defense. It is being said that the relations between the two countries will change for the worse in light of the recent events in Pakistan.

The Washington Post article adds support to the general view that Pakistan is not trustworthy and that the United States should take serious measures against it. It also states that Pakistan’s atomic weapons are not in safe hands. In light of these American viewpoints, we Pakistanis need to think about what kinds of problems we may soon have to confront.

Though it is true that it is best to have neutral relations with the United States (it is not good to have it as one’s ally or one’s foe), we are beyond the point of maintaining neutral relations with it. The time has come for the Pakistani government to choose: Is it going to be America’s friend or is it going to be its enemy? Pakistan is at a critical point on the world stage now. The Pakistani public is against America. Its ferocious anti-Americanism is not limited to a particular class or group of people. Rather, around 80 percent of Pakistanis, regardless of class and religion, dislike America. Given the Pakistani people’s feelings and views, the Pakistani government cannot take a step that is clearly inconsistent with their beliefs. On the other hand, the government can also not go against the United States to such a great extent that it deprives Pakistan of some of the benefits gained by good diplomatic relations between the countries.

Given the situation at hand, both the United States and Pakistan must reach a compromise. It is very unlikely that the policies implemented by both countries in the past will prove successful in the future. The Washington Post article, too, echoes this sentiment. I have written in the past that no country in the world today can compete with America. Terrorism is an issue that concerns not only America but many other countries as well. Hence, when the United States government pressures Pakistan, no other country opposes the United States. On the other hand, we must also face the fact that a country cannot create a democratic and stable atmosphere by making laws and policies that go against the public opinion. We have seen the dismal results of the policies that we adopted in the past. As the Washington Post article indicates, the need to assess and reform these policies is not being adequately realized by both sides.

At present, the Inter-Services Intelligence and Pakistani Army are being heavily criticized. The reasons for these criticisms are many. A nation, including its government, should be very concerned when its army is being criticized both domestically and internationally. Unfortunately, people in our country are more concerned with issues such as group/party affiliations rather than with more pressing matters, such as national unity and stability. The government supports the army when it needs its protection. It will be very wrong if the army, too, starts thinking similarly, that it ought to align itself with those groups in society that will provide it with benefits and favors. The army and judiciary should be free to act independently without the government’s influence. If the Inter-Services Intelligence and the army cooperate with each other and establish cordial relations, we will be able to effectively deal with external pressures and criticisms. To create this spirit of solidarity, we need dialogue and wisdom. More importantly, we need honesty and truth. We have to be truthful to ourselves and to the world. Doing so will weigh positively on Pakistani-American relations.