Pakistan Is Showing U.S. Enemies How to Defeat America | World Defense

Pakistan Is Showing U.S. Enemies How to Defeat America

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Pakistan Is Showing U.S. Enemies How to Defeat America
Simply put, the U.S. willingness to accept a flawed ‘peace’ deal with the Taliban has convinced Taliban sponsors within Pakistan’s military and all-powerful intelligence service not only that Washington is weak and its concerns not worthy of serious attention, but also that Pakistan can gratuitously humiliate the United States as Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan pivots the country further into China’s orbit.

by Michael Rubin
In 1985, when Hezbollah kidnapped four Russian diplomats in Beirut, killing one, Moscow’s retaliation was swift. Different versions of the story exist, but they all have one thing in common: A Hezbollah commander began receiving body parts of a close relative through the mail. Hezbollah released the remaining hostages and never took another Russian.

Hezbollah may not have liked the Soviets, but they quickly learned that they could not mess with Russians. Contrast that with Pakistan today. On April 2, a Pakistani court voided a murder conviction of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh who kidnapped and then videotaped his slaughter of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Welcome to the world after the U.S.-Taliban realm, negotiated by U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad. Simply put, the U.S. willingness to accept a flawed ‘peace’ deal with the Taliban has convinced Taliban sponsors within Pakistan’s military and all-powerful intelligence service not only that Washington is weak and its concerns not worthy of serious attention, but also that Pakistan can gratuitously humiliate the United States as Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan pivots the country further into China’s orbit.

Khalilzad is now zero for two in high stakes diplomacy. It was Khalilzad, after all, who negotiated the 2003 Geneva deal with now-Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in which the U.S. government accepted the Iranian pledge not to infiltrate militias and forces into Iraq--which clearly they did not follow. Already, it appears the Taliban were no more sincere. The Taliban reject the very legitimacy of the elected Afghan government, and so their refusal to recognize its negotiating team should not surprise. Taliban attacks have continued unabated. The evidence exposing Pakistan’s support for the Taliban and its covert relationship with Al Qaeda remains overwhelming. Not only did Al Qaeda founder Usama Bin Laden find shelter in a townhome to Pakistan’s primary military academy, but U.S. forces killed the leader of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent during a raid on a Taliban compound.

President Donald Trump may feel he has fulfilled a promise to end America’s longest war, but it would be a mistake for the administration to believe its own spin, because no one else does. Al Qaeda has lauded the Taliban’s “great victory” and a “humiliating defeat” for the United States. "Even if we don't say that the U.S. is defeated in Afghanistan, it is an open secret now that they are defeated," Anas Haqqani, son of the Haqqani network’s founder, told the press. Pakistani religious officials broadcast how America was “begging for peace and escape.”

What happens in Afghanistan doesn’t stay in Afghanistan, however: That was the lesson of the pre-9/11 era, and it is even more true today. Trump has warned Iranian-backed militias in Iraq not to attack American interests but why should they listen? Even if the United States launches the occasional airstrike or even kills top Iranian commanders like Qassem Soleimani, the Taliban deal show that the United States will ultimately ignore state-sponsors of terror and maintain the fiction that deals struck with their proxies matter. Revolutionary Guardsmen inside Iranian territory can rest assured first that the Trump administration will not hold them to account for the actions of Iranian-backed militias just as they have not meaningfully held any Pakistan generals responsible for the Taliban. The Iranian-backed proxies, for their part, understand if they simply continue or even escalate their attacks, the United States will eventually retreat. It worked in Beirut during the Reagan administration, and it worked in Basra, so why shouldn’t it work for Baghdad?

Nor is the problem just the Middle East. Russia and China look at recent U.S. fecklessness and conclude that U.S. diplomacy need not be respected. In Syria, Vladimir Putin played poker with the Obama administration and somehow managed to beat a royal flush with a pair of twos. Just as Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev calculated that Jimmy Carter’s 1979 abandonment of the Shah of Iran and impotence as revolutionaries seized American hostages meant that he could invade Afghanistan with impunity, so too might Putin conclude that U.S. weakness means he could act against Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, or ethnic-Russian regions of Kazakhstan without fear of consequence. Taiwan, too, must look at recent Trump moves on Afghanistan and recognize that the White House would not lift a finger to defend it when push comes to shove.

Ceasing “endless wars” might be the slogan of the day, but how wars end matter. Progressives and liberals say that diplomacy should be the strategy of first resort. They are right. But when the United States loses credibility on the battlefield and adversaries concluded that Washington neither has the will nor the way, they will run roughshod over American interests. Pakistan’s release of Pearl’s killer is only the beginning.



Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). You can follow him on Twitter: @mrubin1971.
 

Scorpion

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Pakistan is at war with the Taliban, their involvement in Afghanistan is limited to fighting India sponsored groups.
 

Doom

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i wish we could help Saudi Air strikes would be devastating to end any conflict in Afghanistan.
 

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Pakistan is at war with the Taliban, their involvement in Afghanistan is limited to fighting India sponsored groups.
There is difference between Taliban in Afghanistan and Taliban in Pakistan.
If I change my nick on this forum to "Scorpion" and start abusing and hacking people accounts, who would be blamed for this ? Of course you.

In Pakistan, criminals, smugglers, robbers, gangsters were united under umbrella of RAW and NDS, then given the name Taliban.
That achieved two goals.
1. Original identity was defamed
2. Terror in Pakistan

These fake Taliban groups are now nowhere to be seen in Pakistan. Their only place to hide is the territory under control of Afghan government areas. Their hiding places are decreasing day by day with advancements of real Taliban.
 

TomCat

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i wish we could help Saudi Air strikes would be devastating to end any conflict in Afghanistan.
Better look and pray for your own conflicts and people.

I hope GCC comes out powerful and united as a power.

Our country lacks just the proper highly advanced weapons unlike you guys otherwise we would be enough of a Super Power ourselves. You guys on the other hand have Handsome supply of High tech weapons, Cash and all and yet...

Oil business surely restricts the potential.

I hope for the Best
 

Scorpion

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There is difference between Taliban in Afghanistan and Taliban in Pakistan.
If I change my nick on this forum to "Scorpion" and start abusing and hacking people accounts, who would be blamed for this ? Of course you.

In Pakistan, criminals, smugglers, robbers, gangsters were united under umbrella of RAW and NDS, then given the name Taliban.
That achieved two goals.
1. Original identity was defamed
2. Terror in Pakistan

These fake Taliban groups are now nowhere to be seen in Pakistan. Their only place to hide is the territory under control of Afghan government areas. Their hiding places are decreasing day by day with advancements of real Taliban.

My knowledge is very limited in this issue but I know Pakistan is fighting Indian sponsored Afghani groups that have harmed Pakistan interests in the region, carried out some attacks and spied for India.
 

Scorpion

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Better look and pray for your own conflicts and people.

I hope GCC comes out powerful and united as a power.

Our country lacks just the proper highly advanced weapons unlike you guys otherwise we would be enough of a Super Power ourselves. You guys on the other hand have Handsome supply of High tech weapons, Cash and all and yet...

Oil business surely restricts the potential.

I hope for the Best

I hope you did not take it as an insult to what Doom has said. Pakistan has enough resources men and equipment to take care of itself with no need to any external help.
 
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TomCat

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I hope you did not take it as an insult to what Doom has said. Pakistan has enough resources men and equipment to take care of itself with no need to any external help.
No way brother §§•

I think the tone of my post isn’t clear but i was appreciating @Doom ‘s post and good intentions but suggesting Him goodwill for his nation in return.

Think of it like this, A senior officer is encouraging his junior officer to chin up and make it a goal to surpass the senior. No superiority intentions here as well, just taking the fact that we have an experience of 70 years war and KSA is new in the field, I want KSA and GCC STRONGER THAN EVER TO BE A POWER

GCC is always in my prayers, Remember !!!
 

TomCat

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I hope you did not take it as an insult to what Doom has said. Pakistan has enough resources men and equipment to take care of itself with no need to any external help.
This sentence implies on focusing on your own issues, when a person focuses on single issue, He has less to worry about and usually gets over it faster. Once KSA gets over with This yemen and all and i hope it does, Then they should step up, as they will have a military that has many experienced soldiers and officers. KSA can then think of helping others if required.
Better look and pray for your own conflicts and people.
 

BATMAN

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Pakistan is at war with the Taliban, their involvement in Afghanistan is limited to fighting India sponsored groups.
Anyone can see that US have toppled regional states, only to strengthen Iranian influence in the region.
There can be multiple reasons for this, incl. conspiracy theories, but surely US knew what they are doing and cost of it.
Indo-Irani links with Northern Alliance as well, were as bright as shining sun.
It was Indian policy to surround Pakistan, so they developed an airbase in Tajikistan bordering north Afghanistan, and started to provide military aid to Northern Alliance.
When Pakistan built it's strategic port Gawadar, Iran gave India a military base across the border in Chabahar, under the pretext of port, which is never to be made.
 
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