With friends like Pakistan… – Telegraph Blogs

With friends like Pakistan… – Telegraph Blogs

Pakistan, as most observers of the South-Central Asia war zone will tell you, is a bigger terrorist threat to our nations than Afghanistan. And as the The Great Afghan War Log Leak demonstrates, there is considerable worry that the ISI, the Pakistan intelligence service, has been actively supporting the Taliban against our forces while the country has been soaking up billions of our aid. As the New York Times says, there is “powerful new evidence that crucial elements of Islamabad’s power structure have been actively helping to direct and support the forces attacking the American-led military coalition”.
Pakistan has strongly denied these charges, and I am in no position to judge right or wrong. But if there has been duplicity in an ally, how much of the blame should be shared by the US and/or the UK? And what are we doing about it? One view, expressed eloquently by Imran Khan in The Times today, is that we should carry all the blame. His country, he says, had no suicide bombers and no problems until we showed up and pushed it into an abyss of chaos.
Imran says the ISI is not particularly powerful in Afghanistan, but does not rule out the Taliban allegations. “Certainly in an environment of chaos and uncertainty Pakistan will need to protect its interests through all means necessary.”
As soon as we give up in Afghanistan and the border areas in Pakistan, he says, all will be fine. “The US should not worry about Pakistan. Once the bombing stops, it will no longer be jihad and the suicide attacks will immediately subside.”
This seems dangerously wrong. Saying that Pakistan had no suicide bombers before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ignores the fact that a destabilising problem was festering on the border. That things are more chaotic now is a given, but Pakistan has most certainly been one of the architects of this descent.
I would make two further points: although Pakistan’s leaders have occasionally made encouraging noises about fighting the real enemy of the Taliban, the country’s military is still basically pivoted towards fighting a proxy war against India. There is strong evidence that tacit and real support has been given to terrorist action within India. Until this mindset changes, not much else will. Second, helping the UK and US out in Aghanistan or by sharing terrorist intelligence is the least of ISI’s worries. The Pakistan Taliban, who have dangerously overreached and lost huge amounts of domestic sympathy, killed 2,000 people in Pakistan last year. The streets of London are pretty low down the ISI’s priority list.