It is pertinent to emphasise that playing to the gallery is not a preferable option in regard to serious foreign policy issues. It requires cool introspection and not just anger. We have to use our cards prudently and avoid the propensity to over-emphasise our leverage against US in finding an amicable solution to the Afghan conundrum.
If Pakistan is indispensable for the US in achieving its objectives in Afghanistan, it is also in the best interests of Pakistan to facilitate settlement in that country. Stability in Afghanistan is more needed by Pakistan than any other country in the region. The reaction mode must give way to rational thinking and re-evaluation of our situation in the backdrop of emerging realities. If there is a strong anti-US feeling in Pakistan, there are also very potent and influential voices within the US senate and Congress who are advocating a change in the US policy towards Pakistan, hinting at the possibility of action against Pakistan for its alleged patronage of the Taliban. We need to tread cautiously to avert a situation of confrontation.
Prime Minister Gilani has stated that relations between Pakistan and US which have nose-dived to the lowest ebb after the US attack at Salala, will not take long to repair. He said that Pakistan remained committed to working with Afghanistan to bring insurgent leaders into talks with government and allow the US to begin withdrawing its troops. He also revealed "we have evolved some mechanisms and we are ready to cooperate. We are committed despite the fact that we are not attending the Bonn Conference" US Secretary of state Hillary Clinton has also welcomed the statement. That is the spirit with which the heat needs to be lowered and relations recalibrated.
The US is committed to a phased drawdown of its forces from Afghanistan by 2014 and hand over the security of the country to the Afghan National Army. But before it leaves it wants to make sure that the Taliban do not pose a threat to the new dispensation. There are credible reports that to achieve that objective, the US is planning a massive military offensive in Eastern Afghanistan and also to take out insurgent groups allegedly based in Pakistan, which might entail aerial attacks within our territory. The US is going to do it with or without Pakistan. Given our latest stance that any future attack will be befittingly retaliated, we are staring into a big crisis in the foreseeable future. Military confrontation with a Superpower, in any case, is not desirable. The civilian and military leadership will have to show vision and not allow the present crisis morph into a tsunami that might jeopardise our strategic interests in the region.