An Appraisal of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Strategy to Counter Terrorism

Abstract

In nearly nine years since 9/11, United States is still trying to determine a viable strategy to combat terrorism. With regard to US efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Washington appears on verge of proving Churchill's quip, the United States always does right thing after first trying everything else. (1) Correspondingly, current relations between Pakistan and United States are a paradox. Never before has their security depended so much on mutual cooperation and support, yet both sides are plagued by mutual mistrust and misgivings. (2) If Pakistan is to emerge from this conflict as a stable, prosperous, culturally diverse, peaceful, and stabilizing influence within region, United States and Pakistan need to dispel their suspicions and reconcile differences. Because of globalized nature of ominous terrorist threat, success of Pakistan is critical to security of United States, region, and indeed entire international community. (3) Trust and suspicion, cooperation and dissension, agreement and disagreement, accusations and atonement continue to pervade US-Pakistan relationship. Strategic events have forced United States and Pakistan into close cooperation on three separate occasions: during Cold War (the 1950s and 1960s); during fight against Russians (the 1980s); and currently in global war against terrorism. (4) Despite differences in a number of areas, relationship between two countries has been inexorably drawn together by re-emerging coincident interests. The current war on terrorism is most recent and provides considerable impetus for further cooperation. The recently announced Afghanistan-Pakistan (AFPAK) Strategy adopted by current US Administration provides a starting point for furthering cooperation between United States and Pakistan in war on terrorism and yet there are a number of issues remaining to be addressed. This article examines history of US-Pakistan relations providing insight on previous oscillations in relationship, assesses current US-Pakistani cooperation in war against terrorism within context of recently announced AFPAK Strategy, and recommends ways to enhance relationship and improve cooperation between both nations. Background The birth of India and Pakistan coincided with early years of Cold War. Significantly, partitioning of India and Pakistan led to two countries' different alignments with contending superpowers. India joined Union of Soviet Socialite Republic (USSR) camp while Pakistan chose to align with West. (5) This initial alignment logically evolved into US-Pakistan military cooperation and support. As a consequence Pakistan received much needed military support in terms of training and military hardware. This was a period of close cooperation and, according to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Pakistan became America's most allied ally in Asia. (6) The United States' suspension of aid during 1965 India-Pakistan war, and repeat of same action six years later during 1971 India-Pakistan war, destroyed Pakistan's trust in fidelity of US-Pakistan relationship. For example, when India attacked East Pakistan in 1971 with military support from US SR, Pakistan approached United States for support, request was denied. Shortly thereafter, East Pakistan became an independent country, Bangladesh. This was followed by India's development of a nuclear weapons program (dramatically tested in 1974) that essentially drove Pakistan into developing a similar program. Pakistan's pursuit of a nuclear program cast a dark shroud over US-Pakistan relations and undermined cooperative efforts ever since. Most notably, President Jimmy Carter and Congress suspended all US aid to Pakistan in April 1979 because of nuclear program. Just nine months later, however, in response to Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, United States offered Pakistan a $400 million aid package (much larger than previously proffered package). …