Zaheer Bhatti
As long as the powers engaged in this hemisphere continue cloak and dagger approach to their ambtions, posing to be peacemakers but actually operating with skeletons in their cupboards which they refuse to dispense with, their sincerity will always remain suspect and further endanger global peace in general but more specifically of the Asia-Pacific region. With the world forced into realignments disenchanted with their respective experiences of the past, Trump’s America instead of continuing to harbour illusions of still being the sole superpower, needs to deeply introspect over its hegemonic designs in South Asia and the Middle East and its unbridled assault over Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, besides its arm-twisting of States non-compliant to its agenda. It must see the writing on the wall if it does not take cognizance of its NATO Allies beginning to gradually withdraw from its military campaigns in the region; distancing themselves from its covert role in collusion with India against China’s Belt and Road development initiative which most of them are inclined to avail.
Having tried its [failed] move of another surge with added troops in Afghanistan, Trump appears to have eventually paid heed to observations made at a think-tank by four significant US leaders who had remained involved in the Afghan War; namely Douglas Lute former Deputy National Security Advisor, Laurel Miller Acting Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan 2016-17, Baronet Robin special representative of former Senior Pak-Afghan Advisor 2009-2013 and Christopher Kolenda former Under Secretary for US Defence Policy; all opposed to re-sending added troops to Afghanistan as being counter-productive, and emphasizing upon a negotiated political settlement. This is what is eventually happening much to India’s consternation.
This was the sane course also desired by powers in the region namely China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan which have emphasized upon a non-military solution of the stalemate, to the disappointment of India which alone capitalizes on instability in Afghanistan. Pakistan considered the key to negotiations by these experts, has always maintained that peaceful Afghanistan was elemental to peace in Pakistan since it shared a long border and socio-cultural bondage with the neighbour, always emphasizing upon an Afghan-led Afghan-owned political settlement involving all Afghan stakeholders including the majority Afghan Taliban.
In the greatest US expansionist escapade of 9/11 it is highly far-fetched to believe that some individuals without any logistic support or expertise could firstly hijack not one, two but three planes without till today saying from where and how each one managed to take charge, take off and strike targets at will, and what caused the intelligence failure or the crack force’s ability to pre-emptively intercept and destroy the intruders. The only credible inference that could be drawn is that it was a carefully planned event in order to conjure up a reason by the US to assault and anchor itself in Afghanistan in order to access Central Asian riches and to oversee and possibly contain China.
Dozens of accounts in the world Press have profusely questioned all this to which till date no explanation has been given, besides the fact that the manner in which the twin-towers came down after the strike clearly suggested that they had been brought down by planned detonation exactly the way the Oklahoma high-rise was, nor is there an explanation about the justification of the brazen Allied assault devastating a whole Country just to take out a single individual from Afghanistan, which was blindly authorized by the UN. This is to say the least a war crime by the United States spearheading the disproportionate retribution.
In the case of the Abbottabad Pakistan US Navy Seals Operation allegedly killing Osama Bin Laden without either taking on board the Pakistani Military or Civil Establishment, or conversely that both were neither aware of the presence of Osama ostensibly the world’s most wanted fugitive for years who had allegedly been living in the proximity of one of Pakistan’s key military institutions, nor Pakistan aware about the operation itself, are equally far-fetched.
One does tend to give credence though only to part of the story further strengthened by CIA’s Pakistani sleuth Hussain Haqqani’s latest account that the success of the Operation was in the first place due to the thousands of CIA agents he had allowed in the country without clearance with the then Government to enter and operate in Pakistan, which facilitated them in tracking down Osama Bin Laden, or as most believe, constructing a screenplay supposedly laying siege with the help of a hireling Dr Shakil Afridi undercover of the Polio campaign.
What one does not believe and understand is why as stated by Hussain Haqqani, should Pentagon have mistrusted Pakistan as it continues even today, despite blanket permission and entry of countless CIA operatives into Pakistan through the Islamabad Airport Cargo Terminal and acted on its own without taking Pakistan into the loop? If this was not enough proof of a totally lame duck Pakistani political and the then military leadership in Pakistan, what more could have instilled confidence in Uncle Sam? Clearly peace in the region is neither the US objective nor that of its proxy India; a poor choice to contain the rapidly rising power of China.
Just as it is believed that to merely declare 9/11 debacle an intelligence failure was a patent cover-up, so was the American Navy Seals Operation in Abbottabad Pakistan taking out Osama Bin Laden; both the Civil and Military Establishment in the country expressing ignorance or any prior knowledge either about Osama’s presence or the Operation itself. While the US 9/11 Commission Report conveniently glossed over how the actual escapade took place despite the iron-clad multiple Security cordons, and instead digressed to philosophize into suggestions in how to deal with ‘the self-created and propelled’ forces of extremism in the future, the Abbottabad Commission Report which remains unrevealed and unpublished, only raises speculations. One thing though is clear that there are skeletons in the respective cupboards on both sides.
—The writer is a media professional, member of Pioneering team of PTV and a veteran ex Director Programmes.
