By Patricia Lee Sharpe
Pakistan is willing to destroy itself in order to keep India from having any influence in Afghanistan. That’s what “strategic depth” is all about. Unfortunately, the tactic of using xenophobic Taliban elements to ward off the Indians has turned into a war for the soul of Pakistan itself.
Meanwhile, President Hamid Karzai is proving that he is no more subservient to the Pakistanis than to the Americans, who would also like to control this “loose cannon,” which only means he isn’t anyone’s puppet. American money may be filling the pockets of Karzai’s clan (and his own as well), but Afghans prefer to gamble on winners and, in the long run, the Americans will decide they have other countries to mess around in. India will always be next door, a fact that Pakistan needs eventually to get used to.
So Karzai came to New Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. They discussed “ways to jointly combat terror” and agreed that “the strategic partnership between India and Afghanistan is a positive factor for peace and stability in the region.”
Pakistan has been whining about India’s opening consulates in various Afghan cities and providing visible economic and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Sorry, Islamabad. It’s not going to stop. Karzai expressed the “gratitude of the Afghan people for the assistance provided by India over the years.” The two countries need to “work together,” he said. The Indian side “reiterated its long term commitment to the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan.” And the joint statement calls for a “strong, independent, democratic, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan.” Note the “independent” here. It’s not just boilerplate.
In the matter of terrorism, the discussion was evidently more difficult. The Indian Prime Minister is “understood [who leaked this?] to have voiced India’s apprehensions about the ongoing dialogue over integrating the so-called moderate Taliban elements, specially Pakistan’s perceived attempt to meddle in the process.” Karzai did his best to be reassuring, evidently. “Only those Taliban who renounce violence and accept the Afghan Constitution will be considered for any power-sharing arrangement in the future,” he's said to have said.
The big question is this: can one be truly Taliban and accept a secular Constitution which tolerates religious and personal freedom? So far there’s no evidence for this. And a look around the world today suggests that power shared out of desperation seldom produces a healthy political space.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has a complicated diplomatic dance to perform. Picture a Scottish dancer stepping smartly around crossed swords.