THE former US ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, while recently speaking at an American university in Los Angeles on re-envisioning US-Pakistan relations, accused Pakistan of a tendency to be myopic in the context of its relations with India and some other countries.

That isn’t a fair assessment. Consider what the US has been doing, from around 1948. First, it (and some other Western allies) wholeheartedly helped in the creation of Israel. As a result, the entire Middle East was plunged into ceaseless turmoil, which despite tremendous efforts, Washington hasn’t been able to undo. It has also alienated the whole Islamic world and has caused the rise of militancy and terrorism.

Then there was Vietnam, which was a totally useless venture that caused huge losses not just to Vietnam (the effects of the defoliant Agent Orange persist to this day) but to the US too. Hostilities with Cuba led to nothing but a reversal of an imprudent and wasteful policy after several decades.

The Iraq invasion was stoutly opposed not just by Pakistan and the Muslim countries but even by staunch US allies Germany and France before its launch. Now Mr Obama, who as a senator had opposed George Bush’s plan, has said the Iraqi war led to the creation of groups like Al Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State, which otherwise wouldn’t have happened.

So, weren’t Pakistan and the Muslim world being far-sighted in opposing the neo-con adventure? Likewise, American operations in Afghanistan haven’t yielded any good results, ending only in the withdrawal of the allies.

Consider Pakistan; it has had to face Indian expansionism right from 1947 when India occupied the states of Junagadh, Manavadar and Hyderabad Deccan. Next was Kashmir, followed by Goa and Sikkim, as also Siachen. The 1974 Indian atomic explosion alarmed Islamabad no end, coming on the heels of the 1971 war with the giant neighbour and loss of East Pakistan.

If the now defunct USSR had occupied Alaska or Cuba, which are in the US’s vicinity, would Washington have ignored that? Why then be unfair to Pakistan which, being only one-seventh of India, can by no stretch of imagination occupy it, but only yearns for peace and security?

Not ensuring the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir was the most myopic act by all those concerned.

M.Y. Khan

Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2015

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