Bush
Administration Threatens
Military Intervention In Pakistan
By Peter Symonds
22 July, 2007
WSWS.org
The
Bush administration this week signalled a tough new stance on Pakistan,
demanding that military strongman General Pervez Musharraf takes action
against Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in areas bordering Afghanistan,
and threatening US strikes if he failed to do so.
White House spokesman Tony
Snow told the US media on Thursday that Musharraf was “going to
have to be more aggressive”, in dealing with security problems
in the border regions. Asked if US military forces would be sent into
Pakistan, Snow declared: “We never rule out any options, including
striking actionable targets.”
Bush’s Homeland Security
Adviser Frances Townsend delivered essentially the same message during
a media conference on Tuesday on the latest National Intelligence Estimate,
which claimed that Al Qaeda had regenerated in “safehavens”
in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). She
diplomatically declared that Musharraf was a key ally in “war
on terrorism” and hailed his speech against “extremism”
following the Pakistan military’s bloody seizure of the Lal Masjid,
or Red Mosque, in Islamabad last week.
Nevertheless, Townsend stressed
that US military strikes inside Pakistan would not depend on Musharraf’s
permission. While refusing to be drawn on details, she declared: “There’s
no question, the president’s made perfectly clear, if we had actionable
targets anywhere in the world, putting aside whether it was Pakistan
or any place else, we would pursue the targets.”
Townsend said the Bush administration
had been pressuring the Musharraf regime for months to take military
action against Al Qaeda and other Islamist groups. “It is no secret
there have been a series of very senior-level US government officials
to engage with President Musharraf and address this very issue, beginning
with the vice president [Dick Cheney in February]. And obviously there
are conversations between the president and President Musharraf. [Defence]
Secretary Gates has been out, Deputy Secretary [of State] Negroponte
and a raft of senior intelligence officials,” she said.
The comments produced a sharp
rebuff from the Pakistani Foreign Office, which issued a statement on
Friday declaring threats of unilateral US attacks on targets inside
Pakistan as “irresponsible and dangerous”. The statement
said Pakistan was committed to combatting “extremism and terrorism”
and emphasised: “We have repeatedly made our position clear that
whatever counter-terrorism action is to be taken inside Pakistan, it
will be taken by our own security forces.”
Such statements, however,
are largely political posturing aimed at deflecting growing anti-US
sentiment. As in September 2001, when the Bush administration threatened
to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age if it did not end support for
the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Musharraf is being confronted with
an US ultimatum to take action in the border areas or face the consequences.
Constant American pressure
was undoubtedly a major factor in Musharraf’s determination not
to compromise with Islamic militants and to storm the Lal Mashid last
week. More than 100 people, including 11 soldiers, died in the course
of the siege that began in early July. The brutal military operation
provoked protests in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and other areas
of Pakistan, and prompted tribal leaders in the border area of North
Waziristan to end last September’s agreement with the Musharraf
regime to halt clashes with security forces.
Over the past week, suicide
bombings and attacks on Pakistani military and police have claimed more
than 130 lives. At least 48 people were killed on Thursday in three
separate attacks across the country—two on army and police camps
in the northwest and the third on a convoy of Chinese mining company
workers in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. Another four people
died yesterday after a suicide car bomber hit a security checkpoint
on the outskirts of Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan.
Fighting between Pakistani
security forces and Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters is set to intensify
after Musharraf ordered the military to bolster its presence in tribal
areas near the border with Afghanistan. A full army division was dispatched
to the Swat district of North West Frontier Province, which was declared
last week to be a “highly sensitive” zone. Parts of the
district have been placed under military curfew. Extra troops have been
reportedly sent to North and South Waziristan.
A delegation of tribal elders
was meeting with pro-Taliban groups in North Waziristan yesterday, to
try to resurrect the truce agreement, but any positive outcome is unlikely.
Under last September’s deal, the Pakistani military agreed to
pull out of the area in return for guarantees that tribal leaders would
prevent the cross-border movement of anti-US insurgents. The Bush administration
scarcely concealed its bitter opposition to the agreement, which it
claims has allowed Al Qaeda and the Taliban to consolidate a safehaven.
In her press briefing this week, Townsend declared: “It hasn’t
worked for Pakistan. It hasn’t worked for the United States.”
Destabilising Musharraf
US demands for military action
and threats of intervention can only further destabilise the already
beleaguered Musharraf regime. The bloody end to the Lal Mashid siege
provoked widespread revulsion and further alienated Islamic fundamentalist
parties on which Musharraf has previously relied at both the national
level and the provincial level in the North West Frontier Province and
Baluchistan. Renewed military operations in the tribal border areas
will generate greater opposition and resistance.
At the same time, Musharraf’s
efforts to forge closer political relations with secular parties has
been plagued by sustained protests against his attempts to dismiss Chief
Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The Supreme Court yesterday delivered
a blow to Musharraf by throwing out corruption charges against Chaudhry
and reinstating the suspended judge. The decision will only complicate
Musharraf’s plans to be reelected as president, while retaining
his post as army chief—an arrangement that Chaudhry may declare
unconstitutional.
At a meeting with newspaper
editors on Wednesday, Musharraf downplayed fears that he would use the
eruption of Islamist violence as the pretext to declare a state of emergency
and postpone elections. He nevertheless made clear that he intended
to remain as military head. Musharraf’s determination to do so
reflects his very narrow base of support and his fear that the army
could turn against him if he relinquished direct control.
One of the reasons why Musharraf
struck a deal with pro-Taliban tribes in North Waziristan last September
was that signs of rebellion were already beginning to emerge in the
officer corps. Significant layers of the military are ethnic Pashtuns
who have strong ties with tribal groups in the border areas and inside
Afghanistan itself. Some 600 Pakistani troops had died in the fighting.
Any unilateral US intervention
in Pakistan would evoke broad public opposition and exacerbate tensions
inside the country’s security forces. In comments reported by
McClatchy Newspapers, retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul warned: “People
in that area are really angry and annoyed with what happened [at the
Lal Mashid]... If our military moves in there it will have to fight
its way through and that will be very bad—you cannot do reconstruction
in that sort of environment and you will lose the battle for hearts
and minds.”
Whatever the political consequences,
however, Musharraf has little choice but to accede to US demands for
a crackdown on Islamic militants and anti-US insurgents. A senior US
official involved in the White House discussion told the New York Times
on Wednesday: “We’ve seen in the past that he’s sent
people in and they get wiped out. You can tell from the language today
that we take the threat from the tribal areas incredibly seriously.
It has to be dealt with. If he can deal with it, amen. But if he can’t,
he’s got to build and borrow the capability.”
The Bush administration is
currently providing support to Pakistan to bring the border tribes under
control. Washington has pledged $750 million in economic development
aid over five years to “win hearts and minds”—a drop
in the bucket compared to the huge social problems in these impoverished
and economically backward areas. The US is considering a $350 million
request from Islamabad to help train, equip and deploy Pakistani military
forces, including to establish a new “Frontier Corps” to
police the tribal regions.
Washington has already carried
the “war on terror” into Pakistan. US intelligence and police
officials have collaborated closely with Pakistani authorities since
2001 to hunt down key members of the Al Qaeda and Taliban leadership.
Several incidents over the past five years indicate that the US military
is engaged in covert operations inside Pakistan using predator drones
and possibly special forces troops. Last October, local villagers in
the Bajaur agency accused the US military of being directly involved
in a devastating missile attack on a mosque that left more than 80 students
and teachers dead.
The hardening of Washington’s
public stance this week is a warning that more extensive US operations
are being prepared. An article published on the Asia Times website on
July 3 entitled “US to hunt Taliban inside Pakistan” revealed
that discussions in Washington and with Islamabad have been underway
for sometime. According to its sources, at least four areas in North
and South Waziristan are being targetted. “Operations inside Pakistan
might be carried out independently by the United States, probably with
air power, by Pakistani forces acting alone or as joint offensives.
In all cases, though, the US will pull the strings, for instance, by
providing the Pakistanis with information on targets to hit.”
The New York Times on Wednesday
also confirmed that the White House is planning to escalate military
operations inside Pakistan. “In weighing how to deal with the
Qaeda threat in Pakistan, American officials have been meeting in recent
weeks to discuss what some said was emerging as an aggressive new strategy,
one that would include both public and covert elements. They said there
was growing concern that pinprick attacks on Qaeda targets were not
enough, but also said some new American measures might have to remain
secret to avoid embarrassing General Musharraf,” the article stated.
In the event of a US attack
inside Pakistan, few people will be fooled by Musharraf’s denials
of any involvement. Hoping to stem its own deep political crisis at
home, the Bush administration is recklessly destabilising another country
in a move that is certain to further fuel anti-American sentiment and
reverberate throughout the broader region.
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