U.S. Risks Catastrophic Defeat in Pakistan

"The Americans dare to violate the territory and insult the dignity of a nuclear-armed nation of 170 million people, most of whom despise the United States."


From the moment the United States decided to remove the Taliban regime from Afghanistan, Washington has been in a twilight kind of war with Pakistan. Now, with American troops openly violating Pakistani territory in direct defiance of explicit warnings from the Pakistani military high command, the U.S. risks provoking a crisis in the Pakistani armed forces and society that may well force the Americans to evacuate the entire region in disarray.

The Americans seem to think that if Pashtun tribesmen who live on both sides of the Afghan/Pakistan border can cross back and forth to fight the Americans, then the Americans have the right to do the same thing. Wrong. Once again, the Americans show only contempt for those who choose to become allies of Washington - against the wishes of their own people. The U.S. thinks it has bought the permanent obedience of the Pakistani military through decades of multi-billion dollar weapons deals and bribes. The Americans delude themselves into believing that their alliance with the Pakistanis and the Saudis in the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan two decades ago is a tie that binds more tightly than blood, language, culture and Pakistani national self-interest. The Americans, in their fatal, racist arrogance, dare to violate the territory and insult the dignity of a nuclear-armed nation of 170 million people, most of whom despise the United States.


"The Pakistani people would doubtless approve of their soldiers standing up to the U.S."


The Taliban was created by Pakistan's intelligence services so that Pakistan would be the dominant influence in Afghan affairs. After 9/11, the U.S. gave Pakistan an ultimatum: join in a new jihad against Al Qaida and its Taliban protectors, or become a target of the "War on Terror" - an offer the Pakistanis felt they could not seem to refuse. But the Americans were actually demanding more than the Pakistani military could possibly give. Pakistan's generals ruled, not by popular consent, but through constant deal-making and intrigue among the country's many ethnic and class constituencies. Its Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) component is the chief mechanism of intrigue among the various military factions. The ISI fathered the Taliban, and engineered its rise to power in Afghanistan. The Americans were asking the Pakistani military to kill its own political offspring.

As events have shown, the Pakistani military were unwilling to sacrifice their own creation on Washington's demand. The Pushtun tribesmen on both sides of the border were quite willing to fight both the Americans and the Pakistani Army, if need be. The harder the Americans pushed, the bigger Pakistan's Taliban problem became.

Now the Americans push across the border. The Pakistani military says, No, and some units have reportedly fired on U.S. troops. The Pakistani people would doubtless approve of their soldiers standing up to the U.S. The Pew Research organization reports that only 15 percent of Pakistanis have a favorable view of the United States, and just 13 percent support America's so-called "War on Terror." Osama bin Laden is infinitely more popular than George Bush.

If the United States provokes Pakistan any further, the consequences are incalculable. At the very least, the U.S. may wind up being run out of South Asia on a rail - and soon.