Author:
Publication: The Daily Telegraph
Date: September 23, 2006
URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/09/23//dl2302.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2006/09/23/ixopinion.html
General Pervez Musharraf has made the startling
claim that, in 2001, America threatened to bomb Pakistan back into the Stone
Age. His remark will not facilitate delicate diplomacy involving Washington,
Islamabad and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. And it illustrates the
general's ambivalent attitude to the West's fight against global terrorism.
Nearly five years after the invasion of Afghanistan,
Nato has found that the main threat in that country is once again the Taliban.
The US-led Operation Enduring Freedom concentrated on hunting down Osama bin
Laden and his Arab supporters.
It is the fierce resistance experienced by
British and Canadian troops in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar
over the past few months that has convinced the alliance of the greater immediate
danger posed by the extremist Pashtun movement. And that danger is heightened
by its ability to operate with impunity from inside Pakistan.
Gen Musharraf is described as a close ally
of the West. However, both the peace deal signed by Islamabad and Taliban-linked
militants in the tribal agency of North Waziristan, and the failure to arrest
Taliban leaders operating from Quetta, point to important constraints on the
general. In the first case, the army has complained about the high number
of casualties taken in recent sweeps; in the second, the intelligence community
has suggested that curbing Taliban activities in Baluchistan could be used
as a bargaining chip to persuade the Americans to counter Indian influence
in Afghanistan.
Both underline the general's dependency, in
the absence of a proper democratic mandate, on the security services.
Yesterday, Mr Bush met his Pakistani counterpart.
Mr Karzai, who has bitterly criticised Islamabad for insufficient rigour in
pursuing the Taliban, is due at the White House tomorrow and a trilateral
meeting is scheduled for Wednesday. Washington's attempt at mediation is of
immense importance - for Nato, for the future of democracy in Afghanistan
and for Gen Musharraf himself. In tolerating extremism, he is jeopardising
his own survival.
