Pakistan‘s insurgency fuels Anti-US sentiments

In the midst of 2009 I came across a new terminology AFPAK reported by US media. Certainly this term was coined by the Washington based strategists in their new policy announced in last quarter of previous year. It is quite obvious that US led war against terrorism is incomplete even though 100 per cent objective are met in Afghanistan.Because radical nurseries were developed across the border in Pakistan where these radicals were trained during the cold war therefore Pakistan was considered as important as Afghanistan. Although Bush administration has realised it already and asked Musharraf to take some concrete steps but they didn’t declared it publically. Obama has taken this challenge upfront and declared it AFPAK problem openly. If Pakistan is so critical then why 30,000 thousand troop surges has been sent to Afghanistan only. If part of the problem is in Pakistan and he is not sending troops to Pakistan what options he can have or considering to tackle Pakistan issue.

Currently, two strategic operations are underway to counter this Pakistan based insurgency. Firstly, Pakistan military is fighting a proxy war against these miscreants in NWFP. There is no media coverage of this battle except the ISPR, Pakistan Army media wing, press releases. Although media and people are very skeptical about this non independent reports but still army is able to get general public support through this media stance. There is always been a trust deficit between Pakistan Army and US since the resignation of Gen. Mahmood in 2001 when this war started. In 2008, US Benazir negotiations were also the result of this trust deficit. So the political unrest in Pakistan would certainly favours US in short term. Due to short political tenures political leaders want to make most of it. Consequently the term ‘secret agreements’ is resonating across Pakistani media. Secondly, rather than fully relying on Pakistan to tackle this issue on its own US is using UAV’s to eradicate this threat in the bordering region of Pakistan.

Beside using the diplomatic channel there is much else not evident is being done to improve the situation in Pakistan. Are all these efforts bringing down anti-American sentiments in Pakistan? Clearly it is not, improving the economic conditions in Pakistan would certainly change the way people think not only about US but also about the religion. Currently Pakistan is facing a huge crisis of basic amenities of life ranging from water, food, electricity and housing. There are several institutions like steel mills, PIA and railways are collapsing. Obama’s 1.5$ billion pledge per year is good but how it will drain out by the incompetent leaders is quiet evident from their history of blunders and plunders. If US ensures that utilisation of this aid trickle down to masses, would certainly improve the quality of life and public perception will change.Improving the quality of life of ordinary man would certainly help US in achieving its objective in the region.If US can show its seriousness by solving the basic problems like electricity , food and water of Pakistan in coming years the threat ,US feels,would be minimized.