Pak. swallows bitter Afghan pill

By C. Raja Mohan

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 17. Even as it seeks to exploit its unique geopolitical position in the current American war against international terrorism, Pakistan has no choice but to swallow the bitter pill on Afghanistan.

Pakistan certainly stands to gain by joining the new U.S.-led coalition against terrorism. But the entry price has been stiff. It has been compelled to give up two decades of political and emotional investment in Afghanistan.

In accepting the list of American demands on facilitating the U.S. retaliation against the Taliban, Pakistan has taken the very difficult first step towards dismantling its quest for `strategic depth' in Afghanistan.

As Pakistan passes through a difficult moment in its national life, India should do all it can to let Pakistan evolve, from this crisis, towards a moderate and modernising Islamic state that is at peace with itself and its neighbours.

Whether in business or international politics, it has been said, location is everything. Since its birth, Pakistan has smartly cashed in on its enviable position at the confluence of the subcontinent, China, Russia and the Gulf.

Throughout the Cold War, Pakistan extracted maximum political and economic gains from its willingness to act as a ``frontline state''. Every crisis in the region, it seemed, turned out to be Pakistan's opportunity.

Is it deja vu all over again? As the towers of the World Trade Centre in New York came crashing down in smoke and dust last Tuesday, Pakistan was back in the dead centre of American plans for retaliation.

It will be tempting to see all this as repetition of the old pattern of the American ties with Pakistan; and that Islamabad may recapture its lost standing in Washington and leverage it against India.

A closer look at the current situation suggests some thing entirely different. Pakistan has been in no position to say `no' to the American demand to join the international coalition against the Taliban. That would have put Pakistan squarely in the enemy camp.

Islamabad instead had to accede to measures aimed at squeezing the Taliban and preparing the ground for its destruction by the U.S.

It has not been an easy decision for Gen. Pervez Musharraf to agree to roll back its past policies towards Afghanistan.

If there was just one dream of the Pakistani establishment that matched its desire to wrest Kashmir from India, it was to expand its political influence into Afghanistan. Facing hostile regimes in Kabul which accentuated Pakistan's two- front problem, Islamabad had striven hard to install a friendly regime in Afghanistan. The Taliban seemed to be the answer to Pakistan's prayers.

But the Taliban has turned out Pakistan's tar baby. It has now fallen upon the Pakistani military establishment to facilitate the destruction of one its most valued creations! India expects the ouster of the Taliban would be followed by a comprehensive dismantlement of the infrastructure for terrorism that has taken root in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the last two decades.

As America seeks to eliminate international terrorism, Washington surely appreciates the fact that no surgical operation against cancer will succeed by excising only half the tumor.

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