Author: Chidanand Rajghatta
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 6, 2007
Introduction: Prez Didn't Rule Out Military
Strikes In Call To Mush
The Pakistani foreign office distorted the
contents of President Bush's phone call to Gen Musharraf on Friday, falsely
claiming that he described remarks by presidential candidates about military
strikes inside Pakistan as "unsavoury" and made in the heat of electioneering,
it has emerged.
White House officials have taken issue with
the self-serving version of the call by Islamabad, even as it transpires that
the US establishment is broadly on the same page about actions inside Pakistan
(that they will respond with military strikes to actionable intelligence on
terrorists if Pakistan does not act) except for minor differences in nuance
and emphasis.
US officials confirmed that Bush phoned Musharraf,
but said the president did not criticise comments made by Democrats and a
Republican. "He didn't say anything about unsavoury or electioneering
or anything like that," a White House official told news agencies. "He
said I know you've heard different things coming out of the system, basically,
and you need to know we're going to work with you to defeat the terrorists."
US military strikes inside Pakistan have been
going on for months now, but both Washington and Islamabad prefer to keep
the fiction of Pakistan's sovereignty going to save Musharraf 's face and
prevent a domestic backlash.
Bush's 35-minute phone call to Musharraf came
after days of clamour over remarks from US officials, presidential candidates,
and lawmakers suggesting more punitive military strikes against terrorist
groups inside Pakistan since Islamabad seemed reluctant to act, and was possibly
coddling such groups.
The first mention of such possible strikes
came not from presidential candidates, but from senior administration officials,
including homeland security advisor Frances Townsend. It followed a decision
at the highest levels of the government to publicly turn the heat on Pakistan
for faltering in the war on terror.
That cranking up is already showing results
with Musharraf rushing additional troops to the areas he had previously ceded
to militants under a peace deal he struck last year.
Bush's phone call to Musharraf also preceded
visits to the US by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Karzai has often questioned
Pakistan's bonafides in the war on terror and accused its military government
of protecting the Taliban and using it to undermine Afghanistan's return to
democracy.
Some US analysts go as far as to say the military
government in Islamabad knows the precise coordinates of Taliban and Al Qaida
leaders inside Pakistan and it is protecting them so that it can regain its
"strategic depth" in Afghanistan once Nato forces leave, and in
the meantime milk the west for billions in military and economic aid.
