However, if sour feelings against the US range from the religious conservatives to secular leftists, it is a reality that has to be reckoned with.One can think of three critical factors: The first is the American arms embargo imposed on Turkey in the 1970s following its military intervention in Cyprus to prevent the slaughter of the island’s Turks based on its status as guarantor of the multilateral agreement to maintain the status quo disrupted by a Greek coup. The second was building up virtual Kurdish independence in Iraq in order to weaken the Saddam regime by which the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) found refuge on Iraqi soil, as it still does. The third source of distrust is the US’s unshaken support of Israel against the Palestinians’ plight and misery.
All the talk about human rights, justice, strategic alliance and democracy is taken as ideological manipulations to cover up the imperial interests of the US. Now, every American move in the region and every demand on Turkey are met with both official and public apprehension and resistance. However, it is ironic to witness a similar paranoia in Pakistan as well. The question is whether it is the atmosphere in the Orient that leads to paranoia or American policies that generate it.
Pakistani officials believe that the United States does not have the wherewithal to stay in Afghanistan for long. So they are not willing to commit their strength to fighting the Taliban, which will remain in the region after the Americans leave. Their conviction has been reinforced, especially after President Barack Obama declared that he will start a US withdrawal by mid-2011.
Similarly, the United Nations has declared that it has begun talks with Taliban representatives. Although the Taliban denies this, former Taliban officials who spent time in US prisons are known to be acting as intermediaries. It should also be emphasized that many top Pakistani officials believe they can live with a Taliban regime, provided that they act a little bit more civilized and sever its links with al-Qaeda. After all, the Taliban is a regional reality there to stay.
It is under the influence of this rationale that the debate has turned into how to end the Afghan war, not how to win it. The truth is, as long as Taliban insurgents enjoy a safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal belt, the Afghan war is unwinnable.
Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan’s chief of army staff, and Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of Inter-Services Intelligence, are having a hard time convincing lower ranks about the dependability of their alliance with the United States. They have to deal with the collective paranoia that every US move is designed to weaken Pakistan for the benefit of a secret US alliance with India.
The fuel of this paranoia is threefold. First and foremost is the “US betrayal” of punishing Pakistan, a key Cold War ally against the Soviet Union, with tough economic and military sanctions over 10 years for its secret development of a nuclear deterrent against India. Pakistani officers, like their Turkish counterparts, never forgave their “ally” for leaving them out in the cold. The second is unanswered questions like “If the US is such a good ally, why doesn’t it equip Pakistani troops with modern gadgets and weaponry while asking them to combat a tough enemy?” Pakistanis have constantly asked the US to provide them with 500 M113 fully tracked armored personnel carriers besides other troop carriers and desperately needed helicopter gunships. All the United States could supply were 10 Russian MI8s; half of them can’t fly from lack of spare parts.
The third source of Pakistani suspicions that inhibit further cooperation is the popular belief that there is a secret American combat headquarters directly linked to the United States Central Command sheltered below ground at the US Embassy compound that operates without the consent of the Pakistani authorities. Despite repeated assurances by American top brass and politicians, the Pakistanis do not believe them. Just like their Turkish counterparts they believe that the US may not mind hampering their national security and territorial integrity for its own interests.
Beliefs may be imaginary, but they have real consequences. I believe the US has to do something to eradicate this deep distrust of its allies in order to depend on them in dire circumstances.
