Defense Secretary Panetta with India Defense
Minister A.K.
Antony in New Delhi, June 6. Panetta and Antony spoke of
the possibility of India taking a larger role in Afghanistan.
Panetta Spills
Beans on Obvious: U.S. Handing Afghanistan to India (The Frontier Post,
Pakistan)
“U.S. Defense Secretary
Leon Panetta says India will be encouraged 'to play more active role'
in Afghanistan. But when was it that India did not have an active role? … Indeed,
Panetta said nothing new. This American wish for Indian predominance in
Afghanistan has always been there. And it has always been in the works. If the Islamabad
hierarchy doesn’t wake up to the facts now - it is unquestionably stupid.”
Al-Qaeda's latest number two to be killed, Abu Yahya al-Libi: A jihadist/theologian who rose to prominence in 2005 after escaping U.S. custody in Afghanistan, was killed by a U.S. drone in Pakistan's tribal areas. His presence in Pakistan explains U.S. suspicion of Pakistan's motives, and his death by drone explains Pakistan's irritation with U.S. policy.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says India will be
encouraged "to play more active role" in Afghanistan. But when was it
that India did not have an active role? From the very day the U.S.-led invaders
descended on Kabul, ousted the Taliban and occupied the Central Asian state,
Indian has been active there. Indeed, it was Pakistan that American picked, making
it a sacrificial goat in Afghanistan. But India they lifted up at once, making it
into a ram and fattening it there.
As Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance minorities rode into
Kabul on American tanks to occupy positions of authority in occupied
Afghanistan, under the satrapy of the CIA, India, too, came along on NATO’s
shoulders, embedding and entrenching itself there. In the civil strife prior to
the U.S.-led invasion and occupation, India sided militarily
with the Northern Alliance against the predominantly Pashtun
Taliban.
The Alliance more than compensated the favor by affording
India every opportunity to carve out a critical place in occupied Afghanistan, with
the CIA warmly embracing India’s leading intelligence service – RAW [Research and
Analysis Wing]. Apart from handing India lucrative development projects, Afghanistan’s
new power players very powerfully entrenched themselves militarily as well.
Soon after the occupation began, India’s paramilitary, the Indo-Tibetan
Border Police, which specializes in espionage, subversion and sabotage, was
permitted to enter Afghanistan in large numbers under the pretext of providing
security at Indian diplomatic posts and Indian development projects. But the
paramilitary force was also deployed to areas in close proximity to Pakistan.
At one time, there was even feverish talk of deploying two fully-fledged Indian
Army divisions in Afghanistan.
But the perceptive minds of the Indian establishment
dissuaded New Delhi from this adventurous notion. Their plea was that the
Indian Army would get caught up in the Afghan marsh and return home mauled even
worse than the Indian
peacekeeping force in Sri Lanka, which had to retreat in utter humiliation after
a two-and-a-half year debacle [1987-1990].
Since then, collusion against Pakistan among the American,
Afghan and Indian militarists has roasted significantly on the spit. By teaming
up, America's CIA, its Afghan subsidiary, the National
Directorate of Security [NDS], and India's RAW,
have deeply embedded themselves in Pakistan's tribal area underbelly and the
strategically sensitive Baluchistan Province - softening them up for their
ulterior objectives.
Not long ago, former NDS Chief AmrullahSaleh openly bragged that his agency had strongly
penetrated Pakistan's tribal areas. Indeed, by mid-2010, the axis of CIA-NDS-RAW had, by every reckoning, palpably elbowed the Pakistani
intelligence services out of the tribal region.
Nevertheless, during operations to pacify insurgencies in Swat, Bajaur,
South Waziristan and the other tribal agencies, the Pakistan military stumbled on
incriminating evidence of the axis' complicity with the militants. It is a
rather shocking fact that the Islamabad hierarchy has failed so spectacularly to
draw the world’s attention to this hostile activity toward Pakistan. And this
inept hierarchy has failed just as spectacularly to bring to light that
Afghanistan has become the nerve center of the raging insurgency in Baluchistan.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
Political pundits and diplomatic observers are likely to
read Panetta's pronouncement as yet another ploy to twist Pakistan's arm into
reopening blocked NATO supply routes on its territory. This may be. But the
American wish for a greater role for India in Afghanistan goes far deeper.
Indeed, outgoing U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen once openly declared at
a press conference in Kabul that, "India has a military role in
Afghanistan."
And while the Americans kept Pakistan out of the loop of
even their now-collapsed peace negotiations with the Taliban, they nudged
Afghanistan President HamidKarzai
to sign on a strategic partnership pact with India. That agreement formalized
the training of Afghan military and police personnel at Indian military
academies and training centers, which in any case had long been going on in any
case.
Indeed, Panetta said nothing new. This American wish for Indian
predominance in Afghanistan has always been there. And it has always been in
the works. If the Islamabad hierarchy doesn’t wake up to the facts now - it is
unquestionably stupid.
Pakistan leaders must bear in mind what former U.S. National
Security Advisor James Jones once famously said: “India's role in Afghanistan
is excellent; Pakistan's quite blemished.” That should tell the Islamabad
hierarchy where India and Pakistan sit in the calculus of its American buddies.
