by Oui
Sun Apr 3rd, 2022 at 01:51:07 PM EST
Post US defeat in Afghanistan, ousted by the Taliban, leaving behind the country in a ruined state .. another immense human disaster. The power brokers in Central Asia will be its neighbours: China, Russia, and Turkey. Important nations are Iran, Pakistan and India. All of these states have been outspoken to criticize the foreign policy of both Trump and Biden administrations. Most have been targeted by US economic sanctions. A major shift in alliances is taking place.
US-China tensions have created a schism in Pakistan's strategic thinking. Its decision to skip President Biden's Democracy Summit followed by the offer to be a bridge between the US and China signals Pakistan's desire to be in both camps but also its uncertainty about Washington's response.
A new US ambassador is expected in Pakistan soon, and arriving as he will after his Senate hearing, may bring some clarity to Islamabad's perceptions of US policies and help its own policy choices.
Even though the US-Pakistan relationship is more than six decades old, neither side has a well-defined view of the other and its policies. They have thrice engaged with each other, each time prompted by Washington's short-term need for Islamabad's cooperation to serve its critical security and strategic interests, and Pakistan's long-term need for US economic support and strategic patronage.
[Source: At a crossroads by Touqir Hussain - Jan 29, 2022]
Abdur Rehman Sharf
We reject and condemn in strongest possible terms the highly irresponsible and demeaning tone of da comments about #Pakistan by Ambassador-Designate #DonaldBlome before the #USSenate Foreign Relations Committee. #US must know that Pakistan 🇵🇰 is not a US colony so US needs to mind it's language.
Under Biden, Pakistan and the US face a dilemma about the breadth of their relationship | Brookings Inst. - Apr 12, 2021 |
Pakistan says it wants to co-exist with its neighbors and wants a peaceful outcome in Afghanistan. It seeks a potential détente with India: In February, the two agreed to honor a 2003 ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control in Kashmir, and there might be more in the offing on a rapprochement. In a recent speech in Islamabad, Pakistan's chief of army staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, notably said: "We feel that it is time to bury the past and move forward."
Pakistan also wants a more broad-based relationship with the U.S., one that goes beyond strategic concerns and the war in Afghanistan. It is conveying openness to the West, with its leadership stating that the country's economic fortunes are not wedded to China -- and the $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of China's Belt and Road Initiative -- alone.
Pakistan wants to bring together US and China to avoid 'Cold War-like' situation: PM Imran | Feb 8, 2022 |
Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Pakistan wanted to play the role of bringing together the United States and China because "another Cold War" would not benefit anyone.
He expressed these views during an interview with China Global Television Network that was filmed during his recent trip to Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Post Afghanistan, US-Pakistan relations stand on the edge of a precipice
As far back as the 1950s, the interests of the US-Pakistan relationship were only partially served when `each side used the other to advance its own agenda that impacted negatively on other's interests' writes Tauqir Hussain, a former Pakistani diplomat. Consequently, every time the United States' immediate needs were met, Pakistan was jettisoned. This occurred most notably after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 when the United States imposed nuclear-related sanctions on Pakistan.
Now, the Biden administration has noticeably turned away from Pakistan again. Washington has chosen to remain barely on talking terms with Islamabad since withdrawing from Afghanistan last summer.
The United States continues to blame Pakistan's military for supporting non-state actors, including the Taliban. And yet every American dignitary visiting Pakistan makes a beeline to pay a courtesy call on the chief of army staff and only meets the civilian leadership as a formality. While this may indicate that the United States courts those who deliver for their agenda, it has the effect of downplaying the civilian leadership in the face of the military's domineering presence in Pakistan.
A sizeable number of US policy makers are revisiting the United States' relations with Pakistan. Both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley assured Congress that the administration is looking at the role Pakistan played during the past years and what role the United States would want it to play in the future. Twenty-two Republican lawmakers have proposed a bill in Congress that includes an assessment of support by the government of Pakistan for the Taliban between 2001 and 2020.
Wendy Sherman, the deputy secretary of state and the highest placed US official to visit Pakistan since Biden took over, made it all plain in October 2021. Departing from Mumbai for Pakistan, in an answer to a journalist's question, she said `we don't see ourselves building our broad relationship with Pakistan and we have no interest in returning to the days of a hyphenated India, Pakistan'. She added that her trip to Pakistan was aimed at accomplishing a `specific and narrow purpose' -- referring to Afghanistan.
There is a near unanimous view in Pakistan that instead of owning up to its own flawed policy and botched execution of the Afghan campaign, the United States finds it convenient to scapegoat Pakistan. US policy still looks at Pakistan through an Afghan prism and wants Pakistan for a specific purpose of over the horizon counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan seeks broad based relations focusing on geo-economics.
President Obama discarded the advice on Afghanistan from special envoy Richard Holbrooke in 2009 ...
U.S. Policy in Afghanistan: A Conversation with Richard C. Holbrooke | CFR - Dec 15, 2009 |
The United State will repeats its failure as it white hashes its own faults and always is looking for a scapegoat ... the personality of a bully and narcissist. No difference whether a Democrat or a Republican in the White House.
9% in U.S. Say Fewer or No Troops in Afghanistan; 8% Say No Change | by fairleft - Oct 23rd, 2009 |
Meanwhile back home MAGA continues ...
Islamist Jihad and Taliban Throw Out US and NATO
As defeat looms, Mr Khan has made it clear he will not go gentle into the night. Determined to turn his ouster -- if he remains unable to prevent it -- into a moment of political martyrdom, Mr Khan has built up a combative narrative, melding religious beliefs with nationalistic fervour. He has framed his troubles as the result of an international conspiracy abetted by local actors, accusing PTI dissidents and opposition leaders of being `traitors' for their alleged complicity in the plot.
New Elections Called In Pakistan
Every person willing to become president of an extremely violent and divided state like Pakistan is fully aware he meets an untimely death either by heli or aircraft 'accident’, an exploding device or assassination. Those who manage to escape with their lives will certainly face a charge of treason.
American intelligence can just lean back and bide some time …
The remarkable case of the triple agent and the bombing Khost, Afghanistan
8th Victim at FOB Chapman, Jordanian CIA asset … | @BooMan by Oui - Jan 4, 2010 |
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