Gordon Chang explains why we should cut the ties with Pakistan:
…Abbottabad, about 30 miles from the country’s capital, was heavily patrolled by the Army and the country’s security services. At the time of the American raid, there were no guards in the compound, indicating bin Laden knew he had nothing to fear from the Pakistani military. Chez bin Laden was just down the road from Pakistan’s West Point.
And that’s the point: The Pakistani government, our “partner” in counter-terrorism, shielded bin Laden and others for years. After 9/11, Washington told Islamabad to make a choice between America and the terrorists. Islamabad, however, sided with both…
And in a lot of ways, this is understandable. Pakistan is caught in whirlwind of conflicts, internal and external, which make setting a particular course and sticking to it very difficult. Remember why the nation got started – because when the Brits pulled out of India, the Moslems didn’t want to live in a nation ruled by Hindus (why? the Moslems rolled over and took it from the Brits for 190 years…why not from the Hindus?). Any nation started because the people there hate another people is not off on the right foot – and things have tended to go downhill from there. Perhaps a time will come when civilization takes firm enough hold to allow for rationality in Pakistan – but that time isn’t now, or any time soon. And so, the United States should have nothing to do with it any longer.
And we should embrace India. India is rising towards Great Power status. India is already vastly more powerful than Pakistan and in any future, global conflict it will be crucial to be friends with India, irrelevant if we’re friends with Pakistan. India is also a democracy – not a perfect one (and they do need, especially, to better protect the growing Christian community in India), but a democracy none the less. India has rationality in its government; it has laws which are respectable and respected. While it does have its serious ethnic and religious clashes, they are no where near on the level of Pakistan and there does seem to be a sincere desire there to ameliorate rather than aggravate inter-group differences.
President Bush understood this and India found that in President Bush there was a solid friend. Obama, not so much – turns out the policy of kowtowing to Islamists and insulting friends and allies has produced a chill in New Delhi. I know, who could have figured that? But India is worth a grand effort on our part – worth, that is, to subordinate some of our policy goals in favor of backing India in her’s. India very much wants Pakistan curbed – especially Pakistan’s nuclear force and Pakistan’s support for terrorism in Indian Kashmir. And India needs support against an increasingly aggressive China. We are, in a sense, natural allies…and we should act accordingly.
Pity we haven’t a government with the wit to see this, but we hope to make a change next year.
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