Not the time to take on the US

Zafar Hilaly Yes, indeed, some were miffed that Obama excluded Pakistan from his trip to India. And what's wrong in wanting Pakistan to be treated on a par with India? It's as much a common courtesy as a legal right among nations. And why has what was once a common comparison suddenly become invidious? Because India's GDP is so much more, even if it is not yet equal to that of the miniscule Benelux Arrangement? And why should we believe those who say that money can do everything, just because they can do everything for money? Their credo is that $10 billion can do no wrong, and our offence consists in doubting it. Ah, well, imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of the life of some, though, in the case of a rare few, they make up all of it.
In any case, it is not that Obama travelled to India and excluded Pakistan mostly because of money or a concern for American jobs. That's a ruse which an electorally chastened Obama wants his electorate to believe. When you can literally print your own money, buy your own debt, ratchet up your deficit at whim, spend more on acquiring weapons than the rest of the world combined, invade and occupy two countries and still give a tax break to your people, money isn't your problem. No, "it's (not) the economy, stupid."
Obama skipped Pakistan to make the very obvious point that it will be India, inexorably and inevitably, that will henceforth have priority in Washington. Admittedly, this policy has been in the making for some time, and much before Obama's assumption of office. And why not? Our interests and those of the US do not coincide or overlap, except to a limited extent and only at the tactical level, whereas those of the US with India, for balancing China and the prospect of a large market, are more extensive. However, there being definite limits on our wisdom, but none on our stupidity, we did not educate the public about this. Perhaps because we did not believe that America would so brazenly remove its mask of even-handedness. Or perhaps because of the hype created every time Hillary smiled or Obama called. All added to the public's bewilderment, which seemed astonished that:
(a) America should strategically feel so weak as to grovel in order to enlist India's assistance against China. And to promise India support for a Security Council seat as a reward for ignoring all the Council's Resolutions on Kashmir.
(b) Induct India into the Afghan quagmire so that Afghanistan, already a battleground between Pakhtun nationalists and American forces, should now also sport a proxy war between India and Pakistan.
(c) Obama would so easily renege on his pre-election pledge to help settle the Kashmir dispute and turn his back on Muslim Kashmiris' yearning to be rid of India. Or so blatantly practice what he so much preaches – against. His silence on Kashmir, even as he berated Myanmar and Iran for human rights violations, was not only deafening but obscene. It put him beyond the pale as far as public opinion here is concerned.
(d) America's rush to rearm India even as the weapons were off the shelf for Pakistan. And enable India to divert its indigenously produced fissile material towards building more nuclear warheads, while using America's abilities in rocket science to perfect its nuclear-weapons delivery systems under the guise of space cooperation. For someone whose idol is Gandhi the eagerness, bordering on glee, with which Obama peddles weapons was breathtaking.
By ignoring Pakistan, Obama has exposed the horrible prospect that the US-India nexus poses for Pakistan's security and wellbeing. As this sinks in, our efforts to quell anti-Western feelings in Pakistan and bring to book those who thrive on hate will inevitably flag. And, although that would be very wrong, they may even be abandoned. Indeed, finding ourselves in a financial and strategic crunch we could revert to the bad habit of using jihadi groups to augment our defence capability, again a temptation that we should scrupulously avoid.
Nevertheless, even as the US lines up with India against Pakistan – of course, pretending all the time that it is not – we would be shooting ourselves in the foot if we treat the US as an enemy or revert to our jihadist approach, because that would play into the hands of the extremists and strengthen the hands of demented hardliners in Pakistan and India.
Obama's non-visit was a defining moment in not only US-Pakistan relations but for the political soul-searching it will set off in the Pakistani establishment, which until now felt cosy in America's embrace. As Pakistan is left to fend for itself with a foreign policy that no longer makes sense in the changed circumstances, and a political system based on Western political values that has failed to deliver, so the people will turn away from Western-style democracy to a political system that is either on the lines of the Taliban or that in existence in Iran. And the longer Western democracy hangs about ineffectively, the stronger will become the opposition to it. Mr Zardari may have been elected, but increasingly, as Pakistan radicalises, he will become, like the Shah of Iran, a symbol of discredited American influence. And it will not be his fault, as much as that of the Pakistani establishment, which now runs our foreign policy and, of course, of Obama who hung Zardari out to dry by ignoring him, even as he frolicked with Manmohan Singh.
Actually, as India celebrates the outcome of the Obama visit, which is as much a material as a psychological triumph for India, Pakistan has seldom seemed more vulnerable. The popular feeling here is that our neighbour, now supported by America, wants to fashion us in their mould, or else wants us dead. Manmohan Singh has refused to engage with Pakistan unless, as he implied, we stop churning out terrorists. We are not, but as he believes that, he will have to wait till the cows come home. So we can forget about confidence-building and wait for the next jihadi attack against India. Unfortunately, so great is our vulnerability that escalation will occur at a frightening pace once that happens.
Perhaps, it may all happen even before Obama visits next year. It's up to the terrorists. Anyway, no one is particularly excited at the prospect of having Obama here unless it is an Al Qaeda squad for reasons of their own. Nor do we really want to hear from Obama, if and when he finally gets here, why he has deigned to come. Bill Clinton's explanation for a similar lapse was considered just so much hot air.
Our angst and disappointment notwithstanding, this is not the time to take on the US. Besides, our fundamental problem is the internal mess. We cannot have an effective foreign policy when this regime is clueless about how to deal with the problems that confront us domestically where, sadly, anarchy looms. The trouble is that no one takes them, and perhaps Pakistan, seriously anymore.