Prudent Politics of Pakistan vs. Irresponsible Politics of Afghanistan
Naser Koshan
1947 when this very country came into existence has been quite foxy in shaping the situation in the region in its favor and has never run out of potential cards in pursuing its interests and securing its presence within its current physical borders, while having controversial border issues both with India and Afghanistan. The main reason behind its cunning policies is its prudent and risk averse politicians.
When the ongoing war on terror first started in 2001, the then Bush administration had warned Pakistan to either support the coalition forces in dismantling Al Qaeda and Taliban or the U.S. will turn this country into stone age era. Cleverly, the Pakistani government realizing the seriousness of the issue and the bigger gain it would obtain by supporting the coalition forces and cutting ties with their long term assets and puppets (Taliban) accepted this historical offer and safely played the Afghan card, eventually switching the casualties to the Afghan side and enjoyed a great sum of unconditional aid from the U.S. government which was later spent on its military equipment to be on alert for a probable threat from the Indian side.
Regretfully, I am pretty sure that if the same offer was given to the Afghan side, it would have accepted the return to the Stone Age and had stood alongside its longest enemy the Pakistani government and the ISI itself since the recent irresponsible remarks of president Karzai clearly portrayed his intentions.
Just to shed some light on the issue, recently GEO a Pakistani based private TV channel asked him if he was to support Pakistan if the U.S. attacked Pakistan and he very shamefully despite his former remarks against the elements in this country who are shamefully supporting and equipping insurgents in Afghanistan replied that the Afghan people will stand with their Pakistani counterparts in that case. I strongly, believe that his views are not shared by a minimal of our population, let along that he does not represent the nation as a whole as he came into power post a fraudulent elections in 2009. Lets accept for awhile that he made those remarks to extend a friendship hand to the Pakistanis, but since last week he has been ridiculed all over their media for his remarks as they say what really Afghans can offer in this case as they do not have anything to offer. He certainly let down not only himself but the whole nation with his irresponsible remarks.
No doubt, we have had a long history of dumb and irresponsible politicians who have always enjoyed ties with several countries mainly Pakistan and based on this vulnerability, they have always used our ordinary citizens to fulfill their personal aims and misguide them. Considering the recent history of Afghanistan we have not been able to form a dynamic, long lasting foreign policy which could deal positively and be counterproductive in dealing with explicit interference of our neighbors and play our potential cards in sabotaging their conspiracies mainly made to harm our national security and as a result destabilizing our country.
Pakistan despite its short history and uncivilized society, has a history of being the frontline and gainer in relation to all the important events happening in the world whether it’s the Afghan crisis post the soviets or the nuclear crisis of the axis of evil (North Korea, Iran and Libya) which are believed to have received the technology from Qadeer Khan the man behind the nuclear bomb of Pakistan. As they say in Pakistan (SAB SE PEHLI PAKISTAN) they genuinely believe in it, while no matter how patriotic we sound, we are still cursed with hatred, discrimination and ignorance when it comes to our national security and interests.
Author: Naser Koshan
Washington, U.S. 2011
