Author: Robert W. Tracinski
Publication: Capitalism Magazine
Date: December 24, 2001
URL: http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1305
Summary: India is beginning to learn
what Israel has learned, brutally, over the past year: the U.S. State Department
loves to betray our friends. [www.CapitalismMagazine.com] India is beginning
to learn what Israel has learned, brutally, over the past year: the U.S.
State Department loves to betray our friends.
It is now more than a week since
Pakistan- backed Islamic terrorists shot up the Indian Parliament in New
Delhi, killing 12 people and leaving the Parliament building pocked with
bullet holes -- yet India has so far received zero support from the nation
supposedly leading an international coalition against terrorism.
Nor is it the first time these militants
have struck since the United States formed its coalition. They popped into
the news immediately after Sept. 11, when they issued a threat to shoot
any Muslim woman caught without a veil in the northern Indian province
of Kashmir. A few weeks later, they set off a bomb outside the Kashmir-Jammu
state assembly. What did the United States do? We urged restraint, because
we didn't want to upset Pakistan. So India registered a complaint with
Pakistan's government -- which did nothing. The natural result was that
the terrorists broadened the scope of their ambitions.
The attack in New Delhi is as serious
as terrorism can get. It was an attack on the very seat of India's government,
a threat to its existence as a nation. The attackers were members of two
groups based in western Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e- Mohammed.
It's not important to remember these names; just think of them as the Kashmir
words for "al-Qaeda."
The response from the government
of Pakistan should sound familiar. It has asked for more evidence of the
charges, expressing shocked disbelief that the terrorist groups it harbors
would actually engage in terrorism. Pakistan's more telling defense is
the one summarized in a Dec. 14 Reuters report: "India accuses Pakistan
of sponsoring the guerrillas. ("Guerrillas" is the Reuters euphemism for
"terrorists.") Islamabad denies this, saying it gives moral, but not military,
support to people it calls 'freedom fighters.'"
In short, Pakistan has responded
exactly the way it responded to Sept. 11: with stonewalling, lies, and
sympathy for the terrorists. Yet the United States has taken its usual
stand, familiar and habitual from years of urging Israel to surrender to
Palestinian terrorism. We called for restraint on both sides and an end
to "escalation."
This is the same contemptible hypocrisy
that the Israelis have encountered in America's "War on Terrorism." We
attack Afghanistan, half a world away, because it serves as host to terrorists
-- then we tell Israel it cannot attack the terrorists just down the street.
Even now, it looks as if we are about to urge Israel to re-embark on the
disastrous Palestinian "peace process" merely because Hamas has ordered
its terrorists to suspend their attacks "until further notice." Israelis
no doubt find it very reassuring to know that they won't be slaughtered
"until further notice."
Now we are doing the same thing
to India, urging them to allow an assault on their capitol -- and demanding
that they do nothing to expunge the source of that terrorism.
One would think that the first rule
of foreign policy is to help, to support, to stand behind our allies --
especially when their cause is identical to our own. But that is not the
philosophy of our State Department. Why?
It would be easy to blame this on
U.S. selfishness -- that we are sacrificing India and Israel in order to
support our own campaign against terrorism. But such a strategy is patently
not in America's self-interest. It undermines the moral basis of our anti-terrorism
campaign, making a mockery of our justification for the war in Afghanistan.
It also undermines our goal materially, allowing terrorist enclaves to
flourish in Kashmir and the West Bank.
No, I'm afraid the answer is much
worse: we are betraying India because we don't have the courage to stand
up for our own interests. Our military goal may be to wipe out terrorism
in Afghanistan -- but our State Department's goal is to placate and appease
our enemies everywhere else. And what better way to appease our enemies
than to sacrifice our allies?
There is an easy way to force Pakistan
to do the right thing, the same method we used in September: the threat
of total destruction. Those who saw President Musharraf's speech, when
he agreed to let America operate from Pakistani air bases, will remember
the atmosphere of raw fear and his repeated references to the "survival
of Pakistan." It is time to withdraw America's protection, let him fear
for his nation's survival again -- and then demand that he root out Pakistan's
terrorists.
(Mr. Tracinski is a fellow, writer,
teacher and analyst with the Ayn Rand Institute and speaks regularly at
conferences and on college campuses about the philosophy of the late novelist
Ayn Rand.)
