By Syed Qamar Afzal Rizvi.
The US Congress has recently put a spanner in the sale of F16s to Pakistan on concessional rates. The Congress’ no puts a big question mark on the US-Pakistan synergies regarding the ongoing war on terror. While US State Department seems to have been convinced that the F-16 planes would enhance Pakistan’s forces’ professional capabilities with regard to its counter-terrorism combat against terrorists in Afghanistan & the Fata area in Pakistan; the US law makers are skeptical about the use of this technology by Pakistan. Congress has also withheld $450m that the US administration previously agreed to pay Pakistan.
F-16s: Role in counter terrorism
The State Department, however, maintained that the sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan would assist counter- terrorism and counter-insurgency operations. Richard Olson strongly defended the decision of the Obama Administration saying that this is in the best interest of the United States.
“The administration is supportive of the F-16 sale to Pakistan. This is been developed between our military coordinating groups over the course of time that is consistent with our overall program of support for the Pakistani military, which is based on counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism. The Pakistanis have developed a precision strike capability that they use in the F-16s they have right now to take out targets,” he said.
As a result of this move, Pakistan may have to foot the bill of $700 million for the eight fighter jets. The original plan was to sell eight F-16s to Pakistan and finance most of the $699 million deal through FMF. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Republican Bob Corker and Democratic Ranking Member Ben Cardin, in early March, announced that they would not approve FMF for Pakistan until it demonstrated “behavioral changes” in its support of terrorism and its dealings with India. The State Department, however, maintained that the sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan would assist counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations.
The planes became a symbol of all that is wrong with US policy on Pakistan. It has been money for nothing and deaths for free. Even after $25 billion in US military and economic aid and 2,300 American soldiers dead in Afghanistan since 9/11 largely because of Pakistan’s complicity, the US State Department and the White House continue to believe in the unbelievable – that eventually Pakistan will behave.
Pakistan’s role in the US waged war on terror
Since Pakistan has been a key ally of Washington; it has contributed more than any other coalition partner of the U.S. in this ongoing War against Terrorism including sacrifices of more than than 50,000 civilians, including 6,000 security personnel, in the fight against terrorism during the past decade. The country has lost US$103 billion (S$135 billion), the direct and indirect costs of terrorism incidents. It captured many high value Al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists thus extending full length support to the U.S. military and law enforcement agencies in rooting out terrorists’ network. After successful military operations against terrorists in Swat Valley and South Waziristan Agency, the Pakistan Army has now launched Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan Agency and Khyber Agency, respectively.
These operations have been admired globally, as the Pakistan Army has broken the back of the militants and successfully eliminated terrorist hideouts. The operations are directed against all militants; as a result, around 4,000 terrorists have been killed. With every passing day, Pakistan’s sacrifices are multiplying.
Since 9/11, Washington and Islamabad have different perceptions and strategies to combat terrorism with outstanding differences but somehow both unequal partners in War against Terrorism have tried to manage their ties. Undoubtedly, the most important and grave concern from the Pakistani military perspective has been the U.S. unreliable role in this War against Terrorism and the way it has been showing its distrust regarding Pakistan’s military efforts to fight terrorism.
U.S. is very much aware of the fact they could not have killed and captured terrorists without the co-operation and support of Pakistani intelligence. But on the other hand, American officials believe that Pakistani military is not playing an effective role to combat terrorism. They often blame that Pakistani military is playing a dual role with the United States-a fact that needs to be verified. Yet there have been reflections on trust-deficit between Washington and Islamabad.
US development aid Programme?
After the World War, the strategy manifested itself in the form of post-war reconstruction and state-building in countries like Japan and Germany. In order to consolidate its political and economic leadership, the US started the Marshall Plan, a generous reconstruction and state-building enterprise that helped a war-devastated Europe stand on its feet to confront the rising menace of communism, and also get integrated into the Bretton Woods-defined global economic system. Though it was a political imperative to provide military cover through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) and an economic necessity to help devastated European economies stand on their own feet,this American policy revitalized US-Europe relationship. But unfortunately the US did not replicate this ‘reconstruction and rehabilitation’ progamme in the post Soviet Afghanistan phase. This ill driven US’s strategy paved the way for the evolution of radicalization and extremism in the region.
US-South Asia policy hangs in balance
Ambassador Richard Olson said that Pakistan now had to make a strategic choice, “with the Taliban having refused to come to the table, it seems to us that it is time to address more robustly the question of groups that threaten Afghanistan”.
But Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen disagreed. “We need to leverage our military sales to Pakistan in order to get some more cooperation within the region,” she said.
It goes without saying that since the very inception of US war of terror, the policy makers in Washington seem to have been tilting towards India. This change– in US policy has been evident of the US-India nuclear deal in 2006– and can rightly be appraised by other developments that revitalized US-India strategic partnership. In the current phase of Indian RAW’s involvement in Pakistan,Washington’s policy of remaining indifferent on this issue has also reactivated Pakistani concerns. And subsequently, the US administration’s conceived future plan to sale the drone technology to India may also put a big question mark about Washington’s South Asia policy. If US wants to maintain its durable relations with Pakistan, it would have to seriously think about preventing its unbalanced approach towards Pakistan.
The inevitability of US-Pakistan strategic partnership
Given Pakistan’s geostrategic position and the exigencies entailed by the US-indoctrinated war against terrorism, both Washington and Islamabad cannot afford to redefine their sixty years old relationship. In a recently held bilateral meetings in Washington between Pakistan foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz and the US Secretary of State John Kerry, the two sides positively affirmed to strengthen this relationship.
The two countries agreed on the need for effective action against all violent extremists, specifically underscoring that no country’s territory should be used to destabilize other countries. The United States expressed appreciation for the sacrifices of Pakistan’s security personnel and civilians in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism. Both countries reaffirmed their commitment to countering terrorism including by targeting all terrorists without discrimination. The United States and Pakistan committed to continue promoting peace, stability, and transparency in the region and to eliminate the threats posed by violent extremism and terrorism.
The two sides looked forward to the upcoming Law Enforcement and Counterterrorism working group meeting where the United States and Pakistan will work together to further bolster the capacity of Pakistan’s judicial and law enforcement authorities to enforce the rule of law and combat terrorism, including the financing of terrorism.
Pakistan’s warranted aid exigencies
Pakistan needs the high performance aircrafts for precision strikes against the terrorists holed up in the forested mountain fastnesses of one of the most difficult terrains in the world. The F16s, if delivered, would most certainly decimate the marauding capability of the terrorists. The US Congress’ decision, influenced by lobbyists with blinkered vision, threatens to undo the US commitment to counter-terrorism and to lay the basis for long-term stability, founded on aid for development.
The conflation of the Indo-Pakistan conflict with the counter-terrorism aid, under the influence of some parochial lobbyists in Washington, neither redounds to the US’s credibility as a reliable anti-terror coalition partner, nor to the efficacy of a puissant counter-terror strategy in Afghanistan.
At this crucial juncture, the US has to show its far-sighted vision via its practical smart power doctrine by jettisoning Duffield’s neo-Monroe development paradigm, which related aid to the selfish interests of the West. The US aid to Pakistan, therefore, has to transcend the counter-brushfire stage to a stability inducing stage, in the interest of both countries as well as regional security.
