Monday, February 16, 2009

Mumbai attacks and Pakistan's acceptance

It was heartening to see that at last Pakistan has accepted that the Mumbai terror attacks were launched from its soil. But as I got to read in some newspapers that even Pakistan has been smart enough to accept those facts about which FBI (American intelligence agency) had produced proof and till now (i.e. on 16th of February, 2009) it has not accepted the additional charges which India has pressed. So we can make out that it was a tactical move of Pakistan to not to alienate the Western countries and accept the bare minimum.
So if we consider the willingness of Pakistan to cooperate on war against terror with India or with any other country, than Pakistan is cooperating without any willingness. That is, the Pakistani establishment (or at least a part of it) is in hands with gloves with the terror groups and they are not willing to withdraw the support to the terror groups in the near future.
Now let us try to scratch the surface a bit. Pakistan is deeply suspicious of India (the same way we are suspicious of China) as India is a very big and powerful country, it wants to take the revenge of 1971 war defeat and a well functioning terror network is helpful to Pakistani rulers (civil as well as military) in continuing its grip over Pakistani politics as well as in maintaining its hegemony over Afganistan. Therefore, until and unless there is a serious threat from the terror groups to the Pakistani establishment, they are not going to eliminate the terrorist from their soil. And to avoid international criticism, they will use different means to show that even they are hapless victims of the terrorists. So it is highly probable that in after 5 or 6 months, the Pakistani establishment will revert to its old ways.
So what is the way out of this catch 22 situation? One possible way is that India along with other Western nations maintains the pressure on Pakistan by using new methods and asks it to act on the terror groups. At the same time, India also has to show to Pakistan that it is sincere in its effort to resolve all disputes (without giving up much strategic leverage). In addition to that, America has to resolve the dispute of Palestine (this central to the worldwide Islamic jehad) and it should give up its quest for maintaining hegemony in Middle East (for oil). This collective action of America, India (and other nations like Israel) will go a long way in assuring the jihadis that we are sincere in resolving our disputes with the Islamic world and then only they will come to the terms of giving up this struggle.

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