[lbo-talk] Pakistan, the limited partner

[Sujeet Bhatt]

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/03/01/pakistan_the_limited_partner/

The Boston Globe

GLOBE EDITORIAL
Pakistan, the limited partner

March 1, 2007

BOTH PRESIDENT BUSH and Pakistan's president, General Pervez
Musharraf, have spoken of the strategic partnership between their two
countries. Since Musharraf took power in a military coup and presides
over a regime that may be described as, at best, a severely
compromised democracy, the primary basis for that strategic
affiliation is the fight against Al Qaeda. So it was a sign that the
US-Pakistan partnership is under stress when Vice President Cheney,
accompanied by the deputy director of the CIA, flew to Islamabad
Monday to meet with Musharraf. Indeed, Musharraf's office let it be
known that Cheney "expressed US apprehensions of regrouping of Al
Qaeda in the tribal areas and called for concerted efforts in
countering the threat."

Cheney's visit coincides with hints that Bush is preparing to warn
Musharraf that the Democratic majority in Congress may cut US aid to
Pakistan unless he cracks down on Al Qaeda training camps in the
tribal areas and Taliban fighters crossing into Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda's revival in North Waziristan has set off alarm bells because
British citizens of Pakistani descent have been visiting Al Qaeda's
camps there. Their Commonwealth passports facilitate entry into
Canada, with its relatively porous US border. At the same time,
Taliban fighters armed with roadside bombs are preparing a spring
offensive in Afghanistan. Should a second Al Qaeda terrorist atrocity
within the United States coincide with a return of the Taliban, two
signal accomplishments of the Bush-Cheney team -- toppling the Taliban
and uprooting Al Qaeda from Afghanistan -- would be undone.

Nevertheless, that team has little choice but to tread softly with
Musharraf. It is true that the deal he made last September with tribal
elders in the frontier provinces is not working. After the retreat of
the Pakistani military, cross-border attacks into Afghanistan did not
cease, foreign terrorists were not disarmed, and the Talibanization of
the region was not reversed. But if Musharraf acts too forcefully
against the Pashtun tribal groups, he risks a political backlash and
perhaps even an Islamist coup. Threatening as the current situation
is, having an Islamist regime ruling a nuclear-armed Pakistan would be
far worse.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this week: "The Pakistani
leadership knows that Al Qaeda would like nothing better than to
destabilize Pakistan and to use Pakistan as the base rather than
Afghanistan for its operations." Musharraf should complete the purging
of his intelligence agency, ISI, so he can use it to infiltrate Al
Qaeda's camps, turn the tribes against the foreigners, and sabotage
terrorist operations.

This policy promises no immediate gratification, but would avoid the
disasters sure to come from US bombing runs or special forces' raids
into Pakistan.

(c) Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

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