Who’s Side is Pakistan On?
Wonders James Joyner, owner and founder of Outside the Beltway and managing editor of the Atlantic Council of the United States, in a blogpost for the latter organization’s blog.
In the post, Joyner takes a closer look at Pakistan’s connection and past alliance with extremist groups such as the Taliban and Al Qaeda. As he explains, the Taliban were forced upon the Afghan people by, among others, Pakistan. Pakistan’s leaders believed they needed a puppet state in the region, and they believed extremists could be of value in the battle against India (both open and secret warfare). Therefore, the Taliban were supported and provide a safe haven inside Pakistan’s borders.
That is all true, but one can notice a change in Pakstani government circles nowadays. They seem to believe that the Taliban and Al Qaeda do not merely pose a threat to the government in Afghanistan, but also to themselves. The Taliban and its allies do not merely wish to create a fundamentalist government and state in Afghanistan (and Saudi Arabia); they also want to transform other Sunni Muslim countries, especially Pakistan.
And so, the Taliban and other extremists have turned on their masters. The hand that fed them for years, decades even, has been bitten. Pakistani leaders seem to wake up (rather slowly) to this new reality, understanding that the Taliban are more ambitious than they hoped and, not unimportantly, can count on more support from average Pakistanis than initially anticipated.
Having said that, Pakistan is in the business of protecting its own interests first and foremost. In this article, Joyner states for instance that the new President Asif Ali Zardari is “as close to being ‘one of our guys’ as we are ever likely to get in Pakistan.” That may be true according to several experts, but that does not mean that Zardari will do what is in America’s interest. Instead, he will do what he considers in his own and in his people’s interest - that is how it should be of course.
The main reason Zardari seems quite pro-American is because his ideology is more in line with that of American leaders than with Muslim extremists. Another important reason is that he believes that the U.S. can help his country economically; indeed, the U.S. has already invested many billions in the Pakistani economy and is likely to continue to do so in the coming years.
However, when push comes to shove Zardari will do what he considers in his country’s interest, not in that of the U.S. If this means that his experience will teach him that taking on the Taliban in Pakistan’s tribal region causes the region to destabilize and hurt his image and popularity, he will stop doing so, regardless of what the United States says and wants.
The question “who’s side is Pakistan on?” is, therefore, not the right one to ask. Instead, the question should be “what ideology does Zardari adhere to and what is his vision for Pakistan’s future?”
That, of course, is a complicated question, requiring a great deal of research… which means only a few will be willing to think about it.
