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PDF versionAn intense debate is going on about sending more troops to Afghanistan. Republican leaders are chastising President Obama for not acting quickly and sending 40,000 troops as General McChrystal has requested. Democratic leaders are urging that troop buildup would be irresponsible.
An attempt is being made to define who our main adversary is: al-Qaida or Taliban, so that we should send only enough troops to keep al-Qaida at bay.
The Taliban, it is being argued, is too ingrained and needs to be accepted in some role in some parts of the country. As expected, the common individual is too confused about all this.
Our focus on Afghanistan needs to be challenged. Obama is doing the right thing in taking his time to make a decision. The real danger to the free world is Pakistan for the following reasons:
1. There are no nuclear weapons in Afghanistan, but there are in Pakistan. Having the nukes fall into the insurgents' hands is a big worry and a possibility.
2. The entire Taliban movement was endorsed, nurtured and funded by us through Pakistan during the Russian regime in Afghanistan. Expecting Pakistan to root out the Taliban is like asking someone to kill their extended family. The current battle is the third effort by Pakistan to wage war against the Taliban and was announced weeks ago so that many of them could escape.
3. Pakistan's dictator Musharraf was extremely shrewd in fooling Washington by offering small al-Qaida fish off and on and leaving the core terrorists like Osama untouched. Musharraf has openly admitted to using funds to arm against India rather than crush the terrorists. Osama and his cohorts are hiding in Pakistan (as is the Taliban leadership) with no serious attempt being made to capture him, because doing so would bring retaliation.
4. It was Pakistan's nuclear scientist, A.Q. Khan who provided bomb secrets to Iran, North Korea, Libya etc. and could not have done so without government approval at the highest level (Musharraf). He continues to be free and we are not given access to him.
6. Pakistan is a hotbed of terrorist groups that have been nurtured by their intelligence agency (ISI). It is an open secret that the Pakistan government and ISI are helping terrorists with our dollars. The terrorists responsible for recent bombings in Mumbai and at the Indian Embassy in Kabul (a year ago) have yet to be brought to justice, in spite of being provided proof of their involvement by the Indian government and the FBI.
7. Insurgents openly cross the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan because their training grounds are in Pakistan. And as long as these exist. there will be a never-ending supply of insurgents fighting our troops in Afghanistan (remember Viet Nam and the North Vietnamese).
8.According to experts, Pakistan, in 2025 will have about 70 percent more men between the ages of 15-30, and probably largely unemployed and uneducated. This is the perfect breeding ground for insurgents.
The Iraqi insurgency started to subside when the Sunnis were brought in as partners. A similar effort needs to be made to bring in the various Pashtun tribes in Afghanistan away from the Taliban.
The corrupt Karzai government needs to be challenged and not coddled. They have alienated the Pushtuns, causing them to join the Taliban.
Joe Biden's widely publicized statement at the recent security briefings when told that this year we will spend $65 billion in Afghanistan and $2.25 billion in Pakistan, asked, "That's a 30 to 1 ratio in favor of Afghanistan. Al Qaeda is almost all in Pakistan and they have nuclear weapons. And yet for every dollar we are spending in Pakistan we're spending $30 in Afghanistan. Does that make strategic sense?"
Population centers in Afghanistan are under Kabul's control. It does not make sense to send troops to gain control of 35,000 villages.
So we need to stop obsessing over Afghanistan and start worrying about Pakistan.
Kulkarni lives in Perry.
Pakistan and Afghanistan
This whole analysis is a bit presumptous and not based on facts.The allegation that only small fry were caught during MUsharraf is not based on fact.Many top leaders of Al Qaida were caught and it was America not Pakistan that allowed Osama to slip away when he was in range and USA could not decide to hit him at that moment for reasons that till today remain a mystery. Pakistani nukes are well guarded and the country has a disciplined armed forces with clear chain of command. This is not like Somalia where incidently it were the Pakistani armed forces that rescued the Americans. If we are talking about future poverty and disstability India is a much better candidate.Everyone talks abot Taliban and threat to Pakistani Nukes but no one talks about Naxalites that regularly inflict casaulties on Indian forces and recently their connections were discovered in New Dehli which means they now have very effective network and they too can be a threat to India's nuclear weapons.Other insurgencies are raging across India including Kashmir and a country that looks stable in the books is currently not so if the world media would come out of its shell and portray real picture without bias.It is also India where poverty and deprivation are rampant notwithstanding its progress that has helped a handful elites.Under all this are the slums and lower caste people.So if anyone is looking for destabilising forces they should not just focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan as the region is showng danger signals in other places.Recent succes of Pakistan against Taliban in SWat and now the successful offensive in Waziristan all refute the assumptions in this article.I am sorry to say but this article is so biased that it demonastrates intellectual dishonesty.
Incomplete and Ridiculous Perspective is Given by The Author
Well the above-mentioned perspective is incomplete and ridiculous. It is the comparison like India and Myanmar. I am not a professional analyst or journalist but I have the counter perspective against the above one and any layman can anaylze/compare both countries and decide which one is more vunerable:
1. Pakistan is the country of 180million people with a mix of different religious, ethnic, liguistic groups.
1A. Afghanistan is the country of almost 30 million people where mostly are Pushtuns and Tajiks.
2. Pakistan has a proper security forces' infrastructure, i.e. Army,, Navy, Cost guards, Airforce, border security force, rangers, police, etc.
2A. Afghanistan's security force's infrastructure is currently being developed by other ruling forces.
3. Pakistan have its own parliament and ruled by their own people, i.e. sovereign country.
3A. Aghanistan is invaded and being ruled by US led afghani government.
4. Pakistan's economy is dependent upon various imports and exports
4A whereas Afghanistan's economy is dependent upon drugs, fruits and mining only.
5. Pakistan's literacy rate is above 55%
5A. Whereas Afghanistan's literacy rate is just beling 25%
6. Pakistan has infrastructure of roads, railways, airports, hospitals, schools, universities, electricity, natural gas, etc.
6A. whereas Afghanistan's basic infrastructure is being developed.
7. Pakistan has a proper political contitution and government run via federal and provincial parliaments.
7A. Afghanistan is being ruled by US led govt. that are trying to conduct elections. Currently, there is so called democracy that govern only kabul and surrondngs; remaining parts are controlled by Taliban or its led forces (which is proved by the way).
8. Pakistan is a country where if there is an operation goin on (against militants) in one of the northern parts, remaining country lives happily and regular lives go normal.
8. There are many people in Pakistan who lives in poor condition but doesn't sleep hungry and generally living standard is far better than Afghanistan.
8A, whereas in Afghanistan due to war, normal living standards are very bad and alarming.
9. Urbanization in Pakistan is above 60% and growing rapidily.
9A. whereas urbanization in Afghanistan is below 20% and their cities are not developed as Pakistan.
10. Pakistan produces lots of agriculture products and has warm water as well.
10A. Afghanistan doesn't has a basic crop like wheat and they are dependent upon Pakistani crops. They dont have any type of sea as well.
11. Pakistan has three big vunerable border, i.e. with its traditional rival India, Afghanistan, and Iran.
11A. As per US led forces Afghanistan has one vunerable border with pakistan which is of 2600km and are being protected by US led forces and they even couldn't do it well. When they are not able to protect only one vunerable border, how could they press Pakistan to do it for three borders?
12. As I said Pakistan has proper military, arms, ammunitions, missles and NUKES as well but if Pakistan has Nuclear heads, they have a proper department called Pakistan Strategic Nuclear Command as well (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_National_Command_Authority)
By this counter analysis, anyone can analyze who is more vunerable?
I can mention more differences upon request.