EDITORIAL: Musharraf's resignation

It is sad that an influential paper like Washington Times can write an editorial like this. To put my first reaction tersely and without rancour or sarcasm, America with friends like Musharraf did not need enemies. When Bush spoke after 9/11 and bluntly told Pakistan to make up its mind whether it was with USA or against USA, Musharraf had no choice but to fall in line. He might survive the hostility of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, as in the event he did, but he would certainly not survive the hostility of USA and the West. So he dumped the Taliban and seemingly went along with the war against terror. In this he was playing a double game: run with the hares and hunt with the hounds. He played that role so well that today great US newspapers and Dr Condoleezza Rice are able to heap encomiums of praise on Musharraf: nothing could be farther from the truth. The double game was that while he gave the appearance of fighting against the Taliban, he allowed ISI operatives to go on extending cooperation to the Taliban in Afghanistan; this is now certified by US commanders in Afghanistan. In the upshot, whenever US and allied forces came close to grabbing or killing Osama bin Laden, he was informed well in advance, obviously by ISI operatives who operated equally obviously with Musharraf's approval. Isaf strikes against Osama &c. never achieved their objectives. To the extent he cooperated with US and allied forces, he incurred the wrath of the Taliban and other extremists, who launched four assassination attempts on him that failed and one on Benazir Bhutto that succeeded. Altogether, it is inaccurate to say that he was a willing partner in the war against terror. Facts, especially recent testimony of US commanders in Afghanistan, seem to point in the opposite direction. That this brought Pakistan $10 billion is a fact of the case: it is also a fact that all of that money has not been certified by US audit to have been used for the purpose for which it was given - vide US reports appearing in US newspapers, passim. The US administration - and certainly its leading lights Bush, Cheney, Rice and Gates - went so far to humour and accommodate Musharraf that it approved the handing over of F-16s to Pakistan and refurbishing of older aircraft, all of which could not be used in the war against terror but only in a possible war against India. This naturally caused disquiet in India. Now that Musharraf is gone, the US administration should at least begin to see things for what they were. If they go on insisting that Pakistan played a sterling role in the war against terror, then US objectives in the war against terror are unlikely ever to be achieved. We know in any case that Osama continues to roam free although Bush wanted him dead or alive. V. C. Bhutani, Delhi August 19 2008 0830 IST vineycb1@vsnl.com