Shedding the US fear

LAHORE Pakistan is very seriously and sincerely fighting the war on terror and paying its price both in terms of man and material. But America and its allies are still not satisfied with its performance and are continuing to voice for 'do more, 'act fast, 'go beyond so on and so forth.
In view of the experts, this all clearly outlines that America does not intend to end the war but has designed to enlarge its scope making Pakistan a front line state to pave ground for its own forward movement, as does infantry for the advance movement of huge tanks and other heavy armour in the war at the cost of vital loss. After 9/11 much time has been spent in instilling in the mind of Pakistanis that war on terror is in fact, the war of Pakistan. Though it failed to make out in the beginning and a very huge majority of Pakistanis still holds the same view, yet it has now virtually become a war of Pakistan. We have presented ourselves so often and so openly to defend the Americans and their interests right from Musharraf era till today that now we have become a real target of the rival forces instead of America or any other country. Experts say that American image as first target of militancy has gone behind that of Pakistan and that it is why America is prone to talk peace with Taliban and to let Pakistan continue the war against them which by all means has to provide it the benefit of firming its foothold against Pakistan nukes as well as to draw political gains in the region, ultimately to reach out to the oil and other natural resources.
Former DG ISI Hamid Gul on the count of US leaning for patch-up with Taliban doubts that it would feel comfortable with Islamic Opposition there.
Some strongly believe that the pressure must come to Pakistan before the US troops get out of Afghanistan. President Obama has set 2011 as year of withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, as pressure on him is mounting to start the withdrawal earlier. In this situation, the experts say that America, repositioning in this entire game, would like to see Pakistan go ever deeper into this war because US withdrawal from Afghanistan does not mean delivering Pakistan from the pressure. Gul says that the US withdrawal may be quick with an aim to control further losses, and Pakistans real challenge would be to cope with this 'cut and run scenario, he added.
There is another aspect of the picture. America has paid no regard to the concern over the drones attacks on Pakistan territory which resulted in the killing of a huge number of innocent people. The recent statement by the US officials on not ending the drones attacks, terming the same as a great help to the US declared objective, speaks volumes what America harbours for Pakistan in the time to come.
At present American Secretary of State is mentioning of shunning dictatorial American policy in the world but what havoc the drones attacks are creating, shows that Pakistan is outside the purview of Washington future peace plans. When Pakistan checked the movement of arms in diplomatic vehicles and activity of the private agencies engaged in transportation of sophisticated arms and spy mercenaries reportedly to its mission in Pakistan and objected to the presence and operation of Blackwater (Xe) etc. on its soil, very little was done to allay the apprehensions or stop their activity no matter how much these agents were terrifying the citizens. One may also doubt that the persons related to US consulates were to instructing them to carry with them proper documents of their vehicles and persons while travelling around and that they have to abide by the law of the land in their public life. And for that they were checked and released on US diplomatic intervention. The conduct of the Pakistan authorities has been looked at with concern by the American authorities without showing regard to what people in Pakistan felt over the said activity whereby the already adverse sentiments against America were getting further fuelled.
This situation is giving rise to a feeling at the public level that the sovereignty and integrity of the country was at a risk out of what has been planned by the US led world. They want the rulers to come out of US pressure and frame its own policies, but for that economic independence is a must which has to inevitably come through adopting stern measures of austerity at every level and to purge the system of corruption through a foolproof mechanism of accountability.
After gap, rulers appear coming out of that fear. The statement by President Zardari that America should keep itself within Afghanistan is a positive sign and how long and to what extent the rulers would go and do to fully come out of it, in experts view, has yet to be seen.