Pakistani Ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani spoke to Charlie Rose yesterday. It was a very interesting talk and well worth watching.
As you watch the piece, please note a few points that could use a bit of explication and clarification between the various counterparts in U.S-Pakistani bilateral relations.
First, Ambassador Haqqani, a most collegial and insightful man played up the growing collaborative spirit between President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. True, Pakistan has only recently snapped back into democratic politics, but surely Pakistan’s PPP leadership also wants to maintain strategic depth in Afghanistan. Diplomatic speak aside, clarification on the issue of strategic depth will move the fraught relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan into a new frontier. Whether that frontier is good or bad, remains to be seen.
Second, Mr. Haqqani played up the history of the Taliban’s founding. The story is not necessarily that the ISI birthed and raised the Taliban. Rather the narrative he wants to push is that the CIA paid to develop the anti-Soviet mujahideen and then left, letting thousands of impressionable fighters grow into social and philosophical immaturity.
Finally, given the cut and run history of U.S. -Pakistani relations, Mr. Haqqani has placed working for immediate U.S. interests squarely out of hand. So, he claimed public opinion on America’s presence in Pakistan is around 20% or lower. Drawing the public’s ire will tie the government’s hands at the moment. One of the ways it might draw the public’s ire is by demonstrating greater confidence in U.S. aid and funding. Therefore, he wants to convince his American audience, it’s quite impossible to move out against the Tehrik e Taliban.
This implies that somehow, pushing back the Taliban must be a U.S. guided move. That, because the Pakistani public would necessarily think the U.S was involved, the Pakistani government could not and would not stand against the Taliban–Pakistani, Afghanistani, take your pick.
Whether or not his defense of Pakistan’s hesitation to roll out against Islamist elements is convincing, he has surely shown his audience that Pakistan’s leaders cannot lead. After all, leadership simply is the wherewithal to coax recalcitrant allies to do something they are loathe to do.