Smart moves by India

Posted By Kori Schake Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - 12:49 PM Share

Afghan President Hamid Karzai delivered yet another broadside against Pakistan yesterday, just before heading out to India for a state visit. He said "Pakistan has pursued a double game toward Afghanistan, and using terrorism as a means continues," closing out with a threat that "the government of Afghanistan has the responsibility to decisively fight against the enemies of independence and peace in Afghanistan."

Those are pretty bold words for a leader who can't govern his own country, much less win a war against Pakistan. While he's not wrong that Pakistan is interfering in Afghanistan, Karzai's attempt to shift blame across the border is just one more avoidance of responsibility for his corrupt and incapable government. Like most unsuccessful governments, Karzai's Afghanistan finds others to blame instead of working to improve what is in their power to fix. Pakistan sees a dysfunctional Afghanistan that the United States is about to walk away from, and is trying to create a buffer against its chaos seeping further into Pakistan or providing India a springboard for influence. Pakistan's strategy is not wrong in its assessment, but has chosen a means of influence that is ultimately self-defeating.

By contrast, India has been making incredibly smart choices in Afghanistan. And at no small cost: their embassy in Kabul was bombed in 2008 and 2009, killing scores. A developing country itself, India has provided $1.5 billion in aid to Afghanistan, predominantly for road building, medical treatment, training government bureaucrats, and now expanding to training of anti-terrorism police. They have worked cooperatively with the U.S. to help Afghanistan without provoking Pakistan, restraining the visibility of their efforts at our request.

Karzai lashing out at Pakistan increases the risk for India, both by connecting India more closely with a government that has not succeeded in gaining democratic legitimacy at home and by stoking Pakistan's paranoia about Indian influence. Expect the Afghan-Indian summit these next two days to have Indian Prime Minister Singh emphasizing "civilizational ties," while Karzai trumpets security cooperation.

The respective approaches of Pakistan and India in Afghanistan illustrate the potential problem of President Obama's shift to stand-off military strikes from a presence-heavy counterinsurgency. While Pakistan relies on proxy military power in the form of aiding insurgents to affect political developments in Afghanistan, the Indian government is showing a positive agenda of helping Afghans increase their capacity to deal with their problems. It's the difference between a strategy overly reliant on drone strikes and a counter-insurgency that builds support from within the society we are trying to affect. In its rush to the exits of Afghanistan, the Obama Administration might want to consider the respective attractions of the approaches undertaken by Pakistan and India in Afghanistan.

RAVEENDRAN/AFP/Getty Images

EXPLORE:AFGHANISTAN, INDIA, PAKISTAN
 

MARTY MARTEL

7:12 PM ET

October 4, 2011

Not just Karzai but even US itself is a failure in Afghanistan

Not just Karzai but even US itself is a failure in Afghanistan.

US failure stems from recruiting a terrorist state to fight against terrorism that Pakistan created to begin with.

US and Afghanistan are reaping the rewards of American policy of mollycoddling Pakistan at the expense of Afghanistan.

Nobody forced Pakistani government to facilitate relocation of Osama bin Laden from Sudan to Afghanistan in 1996. Democratic government of Pakistan chose to do so of its own free will at the time.
Nobody forced Pakistani Army and Intelligence to create what ex-CIA official Bruce Reidel called ‘this jihadist Frankenstein’ monster in 1990s. Pakistani Army and Intelligence chose to do so with the full financing provided by Pakistan’s democratic governments at the time.
There was a reason why Sandy Berger, Clinton’s national security advisor told 9/11 Commission in 2004 that 'Pakistani Army was the midwife of Taliban'. UN report on Bhutto killing released on 4/15/2010 confirmed this fact when it noted that "The PAKISTANI MILITARY ORGANIZED AND SUPPORTED THE TALIBAN TO TAKE CONTROL OF AFGHANISTAN IN 1996“.

Following are verbatim quotes from what Gen (rtd) Jack Keane (a former Pentagon official) said at a discussion on Afghanistan organized by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think-tank on June 30, 2011:

1. "The truth is, the ISI aids and abets the sanctuaries in Pakistan that the Afghan (Taliban) operate out of. They (ISI) provide training for them, they provide resources for them and they provide intelligence for them. From those sanctuaries, every single day Afghan fighters come into Afghanistan and kill and maim us".
2. "There's a direct relationship of ISI's complicity and the deaths of American soldiers and the catastrophic wounding of those soldiers. The chief of staff (General Kayani) of the Pakistani military is complicit. He used to be the director of ISI. He put the guy (General Ahmed Pasha) in there who is in charge now and he has full knowledge of what I'm just describing".
3. "There are two ammonium nitrate factories in Pakistan. 80 per cent of the explosive devices that are used to kill our soldiers, kill Afghan security forces and kill Afghan people come from Pakistan."
4. "All of what I just said to you, when we confront them with this, they lie to us.”

With Pakistani Army headed by General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, who once headed ISI, former President Musharraf as well as current Pakistani civilian government repeatedly lying to the United States, America‘s Afghan mission was doomed from the very beginning.

 

TRUTHSEEKER

12:27 PM ET

October 5, 2011

Continuing with rhetorical polemic..

seems to be a cornerstone of user MartyMartel quite apparently.. Twisting facts, even posting obvious lies is the perfect hallmark of a self-appointed pseudo-intellectual.

Apparently, Pakistan wasn't 'recruited' to fight against 'terrorists' in Afghanistan; it was forced to do so with threats. The initial fight which was suppose to be against al-Qaeda, turned out to be an evolving saga of ignorant US policy in the region. Putting Northern Alliance terrorists who were allied with India in power, the Americans believed that 'democracy' would come. What came was, corruption, Afghan govt officials deep into the drug/narcotics mafia pockets, abusive tribal chiefs who were popular with Northern Alliance terrorists prior to the beginning of the war. And then the American attention-span faltered.

Pakistan was left to deal with it while the Americans went to play in Iraq, putting Afghanistan on the back-burner - opting to fight a war of choice on the basis of manufactured lies, instead of focusing on a war of necessity. Don't blame Pakistan for working on its insurance policy after seeing the haphazard nonsense that is the American policy in the region. And don't toss around the holier-than-thou attitude as if the Americans or for that matter the Indians have never used proxy forces to the benefit of their national interests.

Of course it was Pakistan's choice to bring Taliban to power in Afghanistan after it could not bear anymore refugees pouring across the border into Pakistan, upsetting the social as well as law and order situation in its lands- 5million n pouring in the early '90s. Its not Pakistan's fault that Afghans couldn't get on with their problems by behaving maturely. Instead they resorted to a bitter civil war based on ancient and outdated tribal codes. Thanks to Pakistan, the civil war was brought to an end. Don't blame Pakistan for your inability to grasp the dynamics of a region you do not understand. As is the case, Pakistan will look after its interests first, worry about your's later.

NO matter WHO you quote, whether they be Pentagon officials or Hilary Clinton herself - not to mention Israeli stooge Obama or the lackey Congress; at the end of the day, 2014 is close-by, Taliban have made NATO miserable, - Pakistan is suffering too but the Pakistani Taliban are a different story - , NATO and Americans will go home, Pakistan has to live with whatever mess they leave behind, AGAIN and so it has to make preparations.

As for Afghan-Indian coziness, Karzai knows very well, there is no answer to Afghanistan without Pakistan and hence his statement after concluding the Indian tour, 'India is our great friend, but Pakistan is our twin-brother'. So lets not jump to conclusions just yet.

 

ABDALI

1:26 PM ET

October 6, 2011

Mr "paster" marty

Do what ever you can , write what ever you can , say what ever you wish....

Road from dehli to Kabul goes through Islamabad.

 

VODABS

6:48 PM ET

October 5, 2011

Karzai

Karzai is definitely blaming Pakistan not only to save his sinking boat but also to linger on to his position in Afghanistan BESTOWED to him by USA. You are a shame to Afghani people Mr Karzai, Thank you for being what you are..

 

ABDALI

1:24 PM ET

October 6, 2011

Re ; Karzai was elected

was he ??????????????????

That means he was not adviser of unicol

 

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11:52 PM ET

October 7, 2011

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Shadow Government is a blog about U.S. foreign policy under the Obama administration, written by experienced policy makers from the loyal opposition and curated by Peter D. Feaver and William Inboden.

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