President Donald Trump addressed his country on August 21 2017, as he presented his policy on Afghanistan and South Asia, and since then, the humiliation he meted out to Pakistan, a country that has lost so much to the American War on Terror, has become a burning wound.
Pakistan was blamed for providing support to militants and no concrete policy was presented. It felt like Indian PM Modi himself had written Mr Trump’s harangue. The only thing that Mr Trump announced regarding the war in Afghanistan was an increase in troops. As far as his policy on South Asia is concerned, it is sad that a country always boasting about rights ignored Kashmir completely and failed to even notice that Pakistan has been protecting Afghan refugees ever since Americas’ last stint in Afghanistan in the 1980s. How many refugees are in India?
To ask Islamabad to “do more,” it is clear that Washington has always undermined Pakistan’s role in fighting militancy, from turning a deaf ear to the screams of Kashmiris, to accusing Pakistan of wasting American money, as if that American money was ever invested in Pakistani resources or infrastructure rather than sucked back into American pockets through building American bases and logistical support. The United States frequently blames Pakistan for having a soft corner for militants, thus calling Pakistan not a real ally, never realising that it is Pakistan who has to live with militants who hide in Afghanistan, and Pakistanis that will die from a backlash from mishandling militants.
Whereas the Trump Administration criticised Pakistan’s role in the fight against militancy, Saudi Arabia, and China praised Pakistan’s role in the fight against terrorism. Just as it has left the Middle East in tatters from bad policy and a worse assessment of the situation on ground, America’s attitude in South Asia will do the same… Vietnam, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan and now Pakistan. The two countries, India and Pakistan, need not be as afraid of each other, as they should be from American policies in the area.
The spokesperson of the US State Department Heather Nauert said about Kashmir that the United States continues to encourage the sides to sit down and talk together about that. The double standards of American humanism come in the ugliest form when the US government keeps criminally silent on the worst record of human rights in Kashmir by Indian forces.
Public opinion is already against the United States, here and in Afghanistan. Their war will not be won in Afghanistan, and it is not the US or India that will suffer, it will be the Afghans and the Pakistanis. The US, once again, is backing the wrong side.