Emboldening the errorists
Those who cannot remember the past…
The book Charlie Wilson’s War by George Crile makes it clear that very little has changed in American policy towards Pakistan in the last 30 years. The U.S. still backs the dictator du jour:
… without Zia running Pakistan by martial law, there could be no Afghan war. Officially there was no Pakistani involvement with the mujahideen, but the population of Pakistan certainly knew about it and didn’t like it. The Soviets were bombing their borders, sponsoring terrorist attacks. There were three million Afghan refugees and tens of thousands of armed warriors in Pakistan. And all of this at a time when Pakistan had to worry about a new war with India. The only reason Zia was able to maintain the loyalty of his army in the continuation of this policy was because of the billions he was receiving in U.S. military and economic aid. [Link]
Thirty years on, that paragraph barely needs amending to be accurate again:
Without Musharraf running Pakistan by martial law, there could be no Afghan war. Officially there was no Pakistani involvement against the mujahideen, but the population of Pakistan certainly knew about it and didn’t like it. The Taliban were bombing their borders, sponsoring terrorist attacks. There were thousands of Afghan refugees and tens of thousands of armed warriors in Pakistan. And all of this at a time when Pakistan had to worry about a new war with India. The only reason Musharraf was able to maintain the loyalty of his army in the continuation of this policy was because of the billions he was receiving in U.S. military and economic aid.
The U.S. allowed Pakistan to build nukes in exchange for helping the U.S. eject the Soviets from Afghanistan:
… Zia had extracted a concession early on from Reagan: Pakistan would work with the CIA against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and in return the United States would not only provide massive aid but would agree to look the other way on the question of the bomb. [Link]
Pakistan is incented to prolong, not curtail, the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban:
Within months, the U.S.government ‘discovered’ what it had known for the past eight years - that Pakistan was hard at work on the Islamic bomb… the Clinton administration would… place Pakistan on the list of state sponsors of terrorism… with the Russians gone, sanctions were imposed and all military and economic assistance was cut off… [Link]
And neocons are still expecting to be greeted with flowers. Emboldened by the apparent success of the Afghanistan op, Oliver North went on to Iran-Contra, and Richard Perle pushed the Iraq fiasco:
A band of well-placed anti-Communist enthusiasts [Oliver North, Richard Perle] had come up with a plan they believed would bring down the Red Army… As Avrakotos derisively describes it, ‘The muj were supposed to set up loudspeakers in the mountains announcing such things as “Lay down your arms, there is a passage to the West and to freedom.” … North and Perle told Avrakotos they wanted the Agency to spend millions on this program, expressing the belief that as many as ten thousand defectors could be expected to pour across the lines.
“Avrakotos thought North and Perle were ‘cuckoos of the Far Right,’ and he soon felt quite certain that Raymond, the man who seemed to be the intellectual ringleader, was truly detached from reality. ‘What Russian in his right mind would defect to those fuckers all armed to the teeth? … anyone defecting to the dushman would have to be… someone who wanted to get cornholed every day, because nine out of ten prisoners were dead within 24 hours and they were always turned into concubines by the mujahideen…’It had been almost impossible to locate two prisoners, much less two defectors. The CIA found itself in the preposterous position of having to pony up $50,000 to bribe the Afghans to deliver two live ones… ‘One had been fucked so many times he didn’t know what was going on… One guy ended up robbing a 7-Eleven in Vienna, Virginia.’ [Link]
In the end, of course, ‘our’ brutes came off the leash and took down the twin towers.
on Tuesday, December 25th, 2007, 11:58 pm in Military, Musharraf, Pakistan, Politics › 
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Oh, manish, why don’t you get it? This time, it will be different, I’m sure!
Your fundamental point about the connection between US involvement in Afghanistan and military rule in Pakistan is correct, but many things are indeed different this time. The biggest thing is the different nature of the engagement the US has with India now compared to 30 years ago - 1977 was the year IBM was kicked out - you mentioned that once on SM yourself.
Today it has more employees in India than anywhere except the US; and that is growing at a roaring clip. IBM is only a metaphor for my larger point. The roar of US-origin FDI into India has pushed the Sensex through the roof. All that, combined with the movement on reaching an understanding over Kashmir, and the fact that Pakistan’s bomb is now out in the open, has been tested and has a delivery system (none of which are completely independent of the other) - means a new Indo-Pak war is one thing that Pakistan does not have to worry about (or India either). And Afghanistan, now in SAARC, with a US-backed regime in place, has actually begun to worry about markets for dry fruits, carpets, and the like in SAARC. And btw, South Korea sits as an ‘observer’ in SAARC along with the US. These are huge points of difference in the geo-economic-political environment.
And although the Carnegie study you linked earlier takes the view that Pakistan is not cooperating ‘enough’ in rooting out the Taliban - throughout the past year, there have been direct hits by the Taliban, neo-Taliban or Al-Qaeda against Pakistani military targets, including military-related soft targets. This does not suggest a too-close client-master relationship - at worst it suggests a relationship that has completely gone out of hand, and at best reflects the real antagonism between them and significant parts of the Pakistan Army.
But I do have to see Charlie Wilson’s War, if only for the Tom Hanks-Julia Roberts chemistry. I read a review which said that Roberts plays herself in caricature. That should be interesting too. And BTW, for a contemporaneous, comedy-within-a-comedy movie which provides a lot of background for what went on - I recommend Spies like Us with Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase.
And for Om Puri doing Gen Zia! That should be fun too. Was there much of a role there, for him?
Is THAT why so many mujis hate women so much- they can’t cope with liking men more, sexuals-wise? That’s my theory.
The nature of the government in Pakistan is a frequent subject of this blog. Many of you don’t like the US supporting a dictatorship in Pakistan… is there a policy you would like to see put in place? What are the US national interests here? Is the primary objection, we’re giving aid to India’s enemy or we’re depriving the Pakistani people? What’s the path to follow to get to the ultimate goal — peace, freedom and prosperity in Pakistan?