US must cast off illusion of Pak being an important ally in war against Al Qaeda and Taliban: Expert

A military professor at the United States Naval War College has urged U.S.-led Coalition Forces in Afghanistan to cast off the illusion of Pakistan being a most important ally in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and rather see that country essentially as one of its worst enemies because it has acted in ways inimical to Coalition troops, its Afghan allies, and the aims of the Afghan state.

"After 15 years of duplicity and death, a menu heavy on sticks and light in carrots is required for Pakistan, to tap into the enduring Thucydidean triad of fear, honor, and interests," says Colonel Robert Cassidy in article published in the realcleardefense.com website.

 

Maintaining that Islamabad is and acts as an "incubator for Islamist insurgents", Colonel Cassidy, the author of three books and several articles about irregular warfare and Afghanistan, has suggested eight steps for changing this politico-military equation between Washington, the Coalition and Islamabad, which are:

. Stop paying for malice

. Stop major non-NATO ally status for Pakistan

. State intention to make the Line of Control in Kashmir permanent

. Shut down ground lines of communications via Pakistan

. Declare Pakistan a state-sponsor of terrorism that it is

. Issue one last ultimatum to help end the sanctuary (given to terrorists) and not impede success

. Invite the Indian armed forces into Afghanistan for security operations in the Pashtun east and south and

. As a last resort, reciprocate Pakistan's malice and perfidy.

To support his contention that Pakistan cannot be trusted or be relied upon, Colonel Cassidy, in his article, uses two quotes, one by Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai ("Those who would ignite the fire in our country, will burn themselves."), and the other by Sir Francis Bacon, a courtier of England monarch Elizabeth-I, ("He who will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.") to:

. Reflects the consequences of Pakistan's decades of delusion and dissembling support for some of the most virulent strains of Islamist proxies in Afghanistan, Kashmir, India and Pakistan, which has significantly resulted in the net detriment of Pakistan's security and regional stability, and

. An admonition to the Coalition and the U.S. to understand that Pakistan is neither an ally nor a friend, and that seeing the latter as being one, makes the West partly complicit and malfeasant in Islamabad's machinations.

"Years of tactical and operational gains in taking away the Taliban's capacity have been fleeting because defeating an enemy means taking away its capacity and its will. Strategic momentum has been absent because the will of the Taliban and the Haqqanis rest in their regenerative potential and leadership, all protected in Pakistan's sanctuary. Pakistan has created this contradiction to prevent the defeat of the Taliban, protract the war, and erode the Coalition's will, to potentially make the capacity of the Coalition irrelevant," claims Colonel Cassidy, who has done four tours of Afghanistan and one of Iraq.

Tracing Pakistan's history from the time of the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, Colonel Cassidy describes it as being utterly disastrous, traumatic and catastrophic because of the convoluted security and strategic policies it has adopted, that in turn, have bankrupted its economy and diverted resources away from development.

He further states that following its defeat to India in the 1971 war, which led to the creation of Bangladesh from what was then East Pakistan, Pakistan has shifted "more markedly and deliberately from direct conventional conflict with India, to fully employing militant proxies for strategic depth in Afghanistan and to fully pursuing the nuclear weapons option."

"For the last fifteen-plus years, Pakistan has employed irregular warfare to promote its chimerical notion of strategic depth by supporting the Taliban and more lethal proxies in Afghanistan. The sanctuary in Pakistan is the most significant obstacle to strategic success. This war will not end, or it will end badly if Pakistan does not stop its perfidy," he warns.

He said, "Pakistan has been an epicenter and an incubator of Islamist insurgents and terrorists.. The ISI has maintained links between Al Qaeda, its longtime Taliban allies, and a host of other extremists inside Pakistan. It is only possible for Pakistan to become a genuine strategic partner to the U.S. if it changes, and eschews its support of proxy terrorists and insurgents. The fact that America has paid Pakistan in tens of billions of dollars for Pakistan's malice and perfidy since 9/11 is disconcerting and vile."

He concludes by saying, "That one crucial lesson of the last three decades is that stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan are interlocked. Chaos on one side of the border breeds chaos on the other. The jihadists cannot be fought effectively with partial or short-term measures, or on one side of the border only. The Coalition and its Afghan partners need to be ruthless, clear, and compelling.