TRYING TO EXPLAIN AWAY BIN LADEN AS A HOUSE GUEST
(….stretches the bounds of credibility)

Pakistan trying to explain away Bin Laden as a house guest, and how he was able to park himself and members of his family smack in the middle of a resort area, and enjoy a quiet haven there for all those years….stretches the bounds of credibility.

The construction of such a compound alone, a fortress-like anomaly in the midst of otherwise modest homes, not to mention so near to a number of military facilities, could not have happened without the knowledge of a number of Pakistan’s military and intelligence services hierarchs. To suggest that their failure to detect and realize what was going on there was due mostly to incompetence is just not believable. However, given Pakistan’s culture of corruption and that Bin Laden had the means to carefully grease any number of palms to ensure his seclusion and security is a much more plausible explanation.

But the real explanation for its role in the Bin Laden episode is much murkier than all that. It goes back some sixty years to its creation as an independent nation, and the horrific, nightmarish, even genocidal,  and violent events that led to its separation from a newly independent India from British colonial rule. And later, the violent withdrawal of its Bangladeshi cousins from it (for which it blamed India), along with the ongoing squabbles it has had with it over Kashmir. All of these have left its internal politics a turgid cesspool of conflicting interests and ideological agendas all driven by a collective paranoia about anything having to do with India.

Thus, regardless of which elements were in power for the moment, that paranoia has generated a myopic perspective to Pakistan’s policies towards India, believing it to be the greatest threat to its continued national existence. Afghanistan, the Taliban, al Qaeda, and everything relating to them have been secondary, and its relationship with these, guided by how well they could be used to counter India’s influence in the region. Hence, the double and triple cross games it has played with America for the past decade, making it an erratic and unreliable ally in America’s war against international terrorism.

But as America’s efforts against the Taliban and al Qaeda intensified to go after and eliminate as many of their leaders as possible, both with more boots on the ground, and advanced drone technologies, Pakistan’s involvement with those American efforts became more complicated. Much like a growing boil, its double game steadily eroded the essential element of mutual trust required for any alliance to succeed. Fortunately that boil has now been lanced, with Bin Laden consigned to the sharks of the Arabian Sea where, hopefully, others of his legions may soon join him. But, as long as Pakistan’s various hierarchies maintain such a twisted perspective about India, America can only expect more of the same.

So, where does the American and Pakistani relationship go from here?

For one thing Pakistan should be firmly told in no uncertain terms that, if it expects to continue receiving aid and support from America, the time has come to put aside such antipathies about India. Instead, it needs to seize a very narrow window of opportunity to convert all that historical baggage between them into something of mutual benefit to each. Something on the order of an economic, perhaps even military, association together, more closely in sync with today’s realities.

And the realities of today are quite simple. India, is much too busy today making money, and booming itself into a major south Asian economic power, than being a military threat to anyone else, especially Pakistan. More to the point, ever since becoming independent from Britain, its military posture has generally been defensive, not offensive. Nor did it try to resist the breaking away of Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Sri Lanka. Even with Kashmir, it could very well be prepared to let it go its own way as well, if Pakistan might concur (I suspect if anyone bothered to ask the Kashmiri about that idea, their response could very well be….a pox on both of you….we’ll opt for independence). In short today’s realities require statesmanship from both Pakistan and India to finally resolve such issues.

Meanwhile, America’s best policy forward from here, should be to quietly encourage both of them to move towards forming such a relationship, one by which the entire sub-continent might band together in economic prosperity and mutual security rather than in conflict.

That would, indeed,  be a truly fitting end to a sorry episode, and a grand capstone of achievement against international terrorism.

CENTURION