Omar1984
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Obama Administration is under too much pressure from India not to concede anything to Pakistan in the third round of the ongoing strategic dialogue in Washington. In fact, for some time, the US Administration is following a policy of appeasing New Delhi which can be judged by the fact that US is maintaining double standards on Kashmir and Tibet. On one hand, the Americans are feeling the pain of human rights violations in Tibet condemning China while on the other hand they are tight-lipped on blatant state-sponsored terrorism in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).
Therefore, Pakistani demands, no matter how genuine they are, would not be acceptable to the US military and civil leadership. For instance Islamabad has been demanding civil nuclear cooperation as had been extended to Indians but the same was being denied to us on one clumsy pretext or another. We have been asking for transfer of drone technology so that Pakistan military or air force could carry out operations against terrorists within Pakistani territory. This has also been refused to appease India. Not only this, we are time and again told in clear terms that no military assistance should be used against India. Adding salt to injury, we are being asked consistently that we should provide guarantees to this affect.
Another issue that would dominate the third round is NATO commanders statement saying that prime target Osama Bin laden and Aiman Al-Zawahiri were living in areas adjacent to the Pak-Afghan border. Pakistan on its part has, on numerous occasion, said it they have specific information they should share it with Pakistani intelligence agencies so that an action is initiated to capture them. The Pakistani delegation is expected to tell the Americans that such propaganda was likely to adversely hit Pakistan Armys strikes in the troubled region. Chief of the Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani may speak to his counterpart firmly bringing it home that if ever they were found on Pakistani soil, they would not be allowed to go scot free.
How the American mind works is anybodys guess? How far the Jewish lobby influences White House and Pentagon in decision-making is very difficult to gauge? Pakistan was declared a non-NATO ally because of its role in the international war on terror being a frontline state. A large portion of our Armed Forces was made to be deployed in the FATA region after its successful Swat operations. Yet, we have been asked over and over again to do more. Within the security framework, very often the Pakistani government is criticized for not doing enough to fight the Afghan Taliban.
Another issue that would certainly come under debate is the violation of Pakistani territory by the NATO troops and by its helicopters. From the American side, we have heard only condolences over the killing and not the condemnation of the act as such. There has been lot of criticism against the government for not reacting effectively and rather coming out with a lukewarm response. However, the COAS reacted sharply and conveyed to the NATO commanders that such a violation would not unacceptable in future. This has led to the apology of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on the first day of strategic talks during talks with Mr Kayani.
However, this is a fact that Pakistan has been a partner with the United States on counter-terrorism operations inside its territorial boundaries against a range of extremist groups including Al-Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban and also other extremist gangs. Despite this, the US have raised concerns on the sanctuary issue of the Afghan Taliban. This issue is likely to be one of the main focuses during the final stages of the Strategic Dialogue.
Although it is difficult to predict precisely the outcome of the current round, yet, one can hope that it would ease out the pressure on Pakistan in term of Americans insistence to force Pakistan to continue doing more. It is also expected that our delegation would succeeds in bringing about a quid pro quo where Pakistan could gain what it had in mind before embarking upon the visit to the United States.
