Author: Chidanand Rajghatta
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 13, 2011
URL: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-10-01/us/30232631_1_haqqani-group-asif-ali-zardari-pakistan
You can't keep a wild animal in your backyard
and expect it to go only after your neighbor, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
warned Pakistan on Friday in unsparing criticism of its toxic policies in
the neighborhood even as the country's beleaguered president Asif Ali Zardari
pleaded with US for re-engagement after the Pakistani military's provocations
in Afghanistan.
Clinton chose a lecture in her former home
turf in Little Rock, Arkansas, to launch into one of the most candid appraisals
of U.S-Pakistan ties going back three decades. She agreed that Pakistan had
some basis for blaming Washington for its troubles given how the U.S had once
encouraged "good terrorists," but "that in no way excuses the
fact that they (Pakistan) are (now) making a serious, grievous, strategic
error supporting these groups" (of "bad terrorists")
"You think that you can keep a wild
animal in the backyard and it will only go after your neighbor?" Clinton
asked rhetorically, implicitly referring to Pakistan unleashing terrorism
in India and Afghanistan, and adding, "We have too many stories where
that doesn't turn out like that."
Clinton's searing remarks came even as President
Zardari urged the Obama administration to talk TO, instead of talking AT Pakistan,
in a long unrepentant Washington Post op-ed lament full of gripes and grievances.
"Terrorists who threaten both our country and the United States have
gained the most from the recent verbal assaults some in America have made
against Pakistan," Zardari claimed, complaining, "We are spoken
to instead of being heard. We are being battered by nature and by our friends."
But Washington appears to have cottoned on
to Pakistan's self-serving narratives although the U.S reeled back a bit from
kind of censure it unleashed earlier this week. President Obama himself led
the way in giving Islamabad the benefit of doubt from charges of directly
sponsoring terrorism, telling a radio interview that "the intelligence
is not as clear as we might like in terms of what exactly that relationship
(between ISI and the Haqqani group) is."
"But my attitude is, whether there is
active engagement with Haqqani on the part of the Pakistanis, or rather just
passively allowing them to operate ... they've got to take care of this problem,"
he warned.
Both Obama and Clinton indicated they would
maintain ties with Islamabad focused on intelligence cooperation as they seek
to walk Pakistan away from its self-destructive policies and eliminate terrorism.
"We are pressing and pushing on every
lever that we have in the relationship...to prevent any attacks against us
emanating from Pakistan, as well as to try to help stabilize Pakistan against
this internal threat, and to create the best possible circumstances for Afghanistan
to be able to have control over its own future," Clinton said. "Those
are all extremely difficult, and we are learning it, each piece of that, every
single day."
Comments directed at Islamabad from the U.S
leadership came after its top military official unleashed a firestorm in the
final days leading to his retirement, virtually accusing the Pakistani military,
with whose leadership he shared a close relationship for four years, of directly
sponsoring terrorism. The official, Admiral Mike Mullen, faded into retirement
on Friday, but not before he advised his successor Gen. Martin Dempsey to
keep Pakistan front and center.
"I urged Marty to remember the importance
of Pakistan to all of this, to try and do a better job than I did with that
vexing and yet vital relationship," he said in a transition ceremony
that was otherwise laced with wit and humor.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration dispatched
its special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman to the region
to iron out wrinkles following Mullen's parting shots even as officials assured
Pakistan they don't plan to have U.S boots on the ground in the hunt for the
Haqqani group. Grossman is also expected to stop by in New Delhi for consultations.
