IK is guilty all right...guilty of naivety. In itself, naivety is not a serious or a fatal flaw especially if displayed by a person of letters such as a poet or an author. For a statesman however, naivety can have fatal consequences both for himself and for his people.
Jinnah displayed naivety when he became an "ambassador for hindu muslim unity". After a decade of of butting his head on the wall and not getting anywhere, Jinnah saw the errors of his ways and turned into a person that would be an anathema to his younger, "liberal" self. The views he expressed would get him ostracized from polite society of our times. And even in his time, INC along with its muslim quislings portrayed Jinnah as a reactionary who was out of touch with the times when conflicts were between classes and between colonizer and its victims rather than between people with two conflicting belief systems. Jinnah refused to give in to blackmail and to shame heaped upon him by polite society and we are all better for his refusal to go along with popular opinion.
Like Jinnah, IK started as an idealist. Jinnah learnt the lesson and was courageous enough to change his view in face of reality, IK otoh sticks to his two decade mantra despite the fact that his foolishness has gotten him nearly killed and put Pakistan on verge of bankruptcy. To succeed in this world, you have to act like Churchill or Nehru or Putin or Deng....the list is endless. Cause of Pakistan cannot be fought while quoting verses from Rumi and such like.
IK wrote a letter to Obama when Obama first became president - the same Obama, who during a campaign, refused to be photographed with two hijabans because he did not want to upset American sensibilities. In the letter, IK expressed his views that Obama's rule would turn out to be different from that of GB2. Obama's response: drone strikes whose number was around 10x greater than that launched under Bush. Although its apologists claim otherwise, US did not become a super power by following dictates of Rumi. And US government officials get very upset when you show them the mirror which points to the gulf between their rhetoric and actions.
First and foremost, IK is fighting the cause of Pakistan which is a third world country with no ability to influence American policy especially with regards to war. US decided to attack Afghanistan after 9/11. There was nothing Pakistan could have done to stop the war. And US would have bombed Pakistan if Al Qaeeda/Taliban leaders took sanctuary in Pakistan.
GWOT started two decades back and is history now. What's the point of going on and on about it? If you tempt the bear, don't cry went it bites back. The fact this simple axiom has to be spelt out to a seventy year old seasoned politician is a good indication of why IK and Pak are in this position.
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