US couldn't care less about India

[Guest guest]

Make no mistake: the US couldn't care less about India's interests

By Sumer Kaul

Two sentences in the American President's state of the union address

last week have warmed the cockles of the hearts of our South Block

mandarins.In the fight against terrorism, Bush said, "America is

working with India, Russia and China in ways we never have before to

achieve peace and prosperity." The second is his Ramboist

declaration, "Some governments will be timid in the face of terror,

and make no mistake, if they do not act, America will."

The first is seen as an authoritative certificate that India now sups

at the international high table.Not just the war against terrorism

but the whole business of world peace and progress is a quadrangular

affair - and India figures in this powerful quartet.Thus, while on

our own we are quite happy to believe that we are a great power-in-

the-making, we now realise that unbeknown to us we have in fact

already made it - vide Mr Bush's 'we foursome' testimonial!

 

The second sentence in the Bush address has pleased us even more.We

see in it a categorical warning to Pakistan: Mend your ways - or

else! While officially nobody has so far reacted with the gushy

welcome we normally extend to utterances from Washington, there is no

mistaking the undercurrents of anticipatory excitement that the U.S.

will sooner or later act against Pakistan.

 

There is a faithful echo of this wishful sentiment in the usual quota

of officially inspired media commentaries.Referring to Mr Bush's

pathological reference to Iraq,Iran and North Korea as the "axis of

evil", one analyst picks on the addendum "and states like these" as

clearly pointing to Pakistan.And when Mr Bush talks of thousands of

terrorists outside Afghanistan, according to this gentleman, "he can

only mean Pakistan".The speech, concludes this worthy, "brings

Pakistan to its hour of reckoning." In other words, the military-ISI

set-up which has fathered and mothered the terrorist monster had

better quickly disown and smother their progeny - or prepare to see

the underbelly of U.S. stealth bombers.

 

This is in character with the euphoria in official quarters when the

Bush administration declared its 'global war against terrorism' after

Sept.11. The prime minister and company were so sure that Pakistan,

the epicentre of international terrorism, was at last about to meet

its nemesis that he announced that India and the United States

would "jointly least" the war. India in fact did all it could to

offer all manner of help but the Americans chose Pakistan's help

instead. This indelicious irony took some time sinking into the

official psyche in India, but hope burns eternal and while,

officially there is no celebration of Mr Bush's latest speech, there

is renewed expectation that the mullah-military complex in Pakistan

is about to be brought to its knees.

 

With such wishful interpretations and conclusions there is no room

for an honest appraisal of Mr Bush's speech, or at least of the basic

contradictions in his utterances.Take, for instance, the abject

dichotomy in Mr Bush's alleged 'ultimatum' to Pakistan and his

assertion that "Pakistan is now cracking down on terror" and his

unadulterated "admiration" for General Musharraf's "strong

leadership". Contrary to what some people in this country would like

to believe, these laudatory references are not a sequel to the

Pakistani dictator's January 12 address.The praise started flowing

soon after September 11 when General Musharraf agreed to abandon

Pakistan's the Taliban and let the Americans pound Afghanistan with

its missiles and smart bombs.

 

This was undoubtedly a major about-turn by the Musharraf regime but

enough evidence has surfaced since than that the cream of the Taliban

was airlifted to safety in Pakistan (along with Pakistani officers

and soldiers) as American bombers decimated the Taliban rank and file

(as well as innocent citizens) in Afghanistan.It has been a similar

story following Musharraf's Jan.12 speech. Tens of scores

of "terrorists" are said to have been arrested within Pakistan but

the list does not include a single leader of any of the major terror

organisations.Nor has the so-called crackdown made the slightest

difference in their depradations in Kashmir; if anything, the attacks

and infiltration have increased and are likely to go up further after

the snows melt.

 

The ground situation is not the only thing that Mr Bush has

overlooked.He warns of American action against states which in his

reckoning are not only harbouring "thousands of dangerous killers"

but which possess or are developing weapons of mass destruction.

While Pakistan remains the biggest haven of "dangerous killers", in

the matter of possessing weapons of mass destruction, top honours

cannot but go to the U.S. itself! Way behind but weighty in its own

right and one which has in fact exported the weapons and the

technology (to Pakistan) comes China, one of the three close allies

of the U.S., according to Mr Bush!

 

There is much else in Mr Bush's address which is highly questionable

and should cause grave concern.Action against Al Qaida and the

Taliban is now sought to be enlarged to include action against states

and governments that the U.S. does not like, principally because they

are not as amenable to doing its bidding as Musharraf has been in

regard to Afghanistan.Worse, the emphasis is sought to be shifted

from creation or harbouring of terrorists to possession or making

weapons of mass destruction. Worst of all, surprisingly missed by

almost all our strategic observers and commentators, is the very

clear indication that the "global alliance" and U.N. etc. were the

proverbial fig leaves and that the U.S. can and in fact may well be

planning to attack other countries.

 

This last point has caused a lot of consternation elsewhere, even in

the West. It came into the open at the just-concluded international

security conference in Munich.While the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister

opposed "arbitrarily widening" the anti-terrorist fight, the Russian

Defence Minister criticised Mr Bush calling Iran, Iraq and North

Korea an "axis of evil", adding that there "is no data that the

governments of these nations support terrorism". His German

counterpart went a step further and demanded that any future anti-

terrorist strikes "should have a U.N. mandate". Contrary to American

protestations about global alliance etc, the U.S. Deputy Defence

Secretary responded by saying that the U.S. "needs no U.N. mandate to

act".

 

This is as dangerous a portent of the American arrogance of might as

there can be, as clear an indication of how arbitrary and high-handed

the U.S. can be.But then, this has been the story all along.After the

demise of the countervailing superpower, Washington is as brazen as

it can get.It will do what it perceives is in its interest, and only

in its interest.If that means overriding international opinion, so be

it; if it means riding roughshod over other people's sovereignty, so

be it; if it means using its military might against other countries,

so be it.And, in our immediate context, if it means siding with

Pakistan, India had better accept it!

 

Which is not to say that it will never ever ditch Musharraf or act

against Pakistan. After all, America has a long history of propping

up, often creating, monsters and then, when it suits American

interests, dumping them, even bumping them off.The catalogue is long

and inter-continental from South Vietnam and Philippines to Central

and South America.The now-hated Saddam Hussain was once a friend and

protege as was "the monster" Bin Laden himself.But when and if the

U.S. acts against Pakistan, it will not be because of India or the

problems Musharraf and company have created for us.But then why

should the U.S. do anything in deference to our interests when we

ourselves have chosen not to do what is in our interests - indeed

when we have transferred to it, as this government has, the right to

decide what is in our interests?!