Why US is falling for Pakistan’s charms

AS many as seven delegations comprising over 40 Indian politicians and former diplomats fanned out across 33 countries over the past two weeks to explain India’s actions against Pakistan during Op Sindoor, but it is Pakistan’s army chief — and now Field Marshal — Gen Asim Munir who has been invited to participate in the US army’s 250th anniversary parade in Washington DC on June 14, today.

All the bells and whistles for the first parade since 1991 will be on display — 6,600 soldiers, 28 Abrams tanks, 28 Bradley Fighter Vehicles, 28 Stryker vehicles, four Paladin self-propelled howitzers, eight marching bands, 24 horses, two mules and a dog — besides a few rocket launchers and precision-guided missiles.

It also happens to be Donald Trump’s 79th birthday.

Meanwhile, all seven MP delegations have returned home and met the PM. The BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad, who travelled to London, Paris, Rome, Copenhagen, Berlin and the European Union headquarters in Brussels, told reporters on his return that he and his colleagues had explained India’s zero tolerance towards terrorism to their interlocutors in all these European cities.

“We clarified that we are not against the people of Pakistan. The problem is Pakistan’s generals, with whom Pakistan’s people are also fed up,” Prasad said.

Perhaps Prasad hasn’t been reading the press carefully lately. Only the day before in DC, Gen Michael E Kurilla, the powerful commander of the US Central Command, told the US Senate Armed Services Committee that Pakistan is a “phenomenal partner”, especially on the anti-terror front.

“I do not believe it is a binary switch that we can’t have (a relationship) with Pakistan if we have a relationship with India,” Kurilla said.

A few days prior, Kurilla’s boss, Donald Trump, had announced, “Pakistan has very strong leadership. Some people don’t like when I say this, but it is what it is. And they stopped that war. I’m very proud of them. Am I getting credit? No. They don’t give me credit for anything.”

So what happened to the famed “strategic partnership” between India and the US? Moreover, is the much-detested “hyphenation” between India and Pakistan back?

The larger question, of course, is why the most powerful country in the world would still fall for the charms of a nation whose economy is in deep trouble (it has taken 25 loans from the IMF), is a democracy only in name and continues to mastermind terror attacks inside India, the latest being the horror in Pahalgam.

Certainly, something is stirring again in the black lentils. At least since 2008, when India and the US signed their nuclear deal, the Americans have been eager to build a partnership with Delhi — and vice-versa. It was not just about how many Boeings India could buy, although that may have helped. The US recognised the value of a real relationship, beyond a transactional partnership, in which Delhi was seen as a counter-weight to Beijing.

But as Trump up-ends the world with his penchant for transaction, Pakistan has seen a new opening. It doesn’t matter how many snakes you keep in your backyard and whether they can bite you too, as Hillary Clinton so feelingly summed up the Pakistan dilemma back in 2012. Once again, it’s about how you can deliver a snake or two to the Americans so that they return to appreciating the qualities of the snake-charmer.

Here are three reasons why the West seems to be reciprocating Pakistan’s charm offensive:

First, Pakistan’s continuing influence with terrorists makes it a valuable friend. Recently, Pakistan handed over five Islamic State (IS) fighters, including Mohammad Sharifullah ‘Jafar’, who had been involved in the 2021 bomb attack near the Kabul airport in which 13 US soldiers were killed, to the Americans.

Fact is, ‘Jafar’ is not even part of the top IS leadership, even if he may have masterminded this particular Kabul attack. By handing him over, Munir is buying both time and influence — an integral part of Pakistan’s US playbook that has worked well over the decades.

Kurilla’s praise for Pakistan was quickly followed by it being named as the head of two key committees in the UN Security Council — chair of the Taliban sanctions committee and vice-chair of the Counter-Terrorism committee.

The US realises the Pakistan military establishment’s potential to harm is far larger than its potential for good. So why not feed the monster with a few goodies and thereby aim to control it?

Second, Trump’s over-sized ego doesn’t like it when you say No to him. So when he and his aides announced that he had “mediated” the ceasefire between India and Pakistan on May 10, India denied the suggestion. (Trump, in fact, went on to repeat the same thing another 11 times.)

The fact is the Indian Air Force sent a convincing message by striking 11 Pakistani airfields on May 10, which put the fear of god into both the Pakistanis and the Americans and quickly ended the conflict. Why bother denying what Trump wants to say?

Third, Pakistan excels in playing the victim, an irony of no small proportion. By marshalling a campaign that paints India in hideous colour (“India is trying to parch 230 million people by halting the Indus waters”), it attempts at winning global sympathy. That’s what the Bilawal Bhutto campaign in Washington & London, post Op Sindoor, was aimed at.

All questions about the Pakistan military establishment’s role in terror attacks are side-stepped with the question, ‘Where’s the proof?’ Ajmal Kasab-type proof from the Mumbai attacks, in which nearly 170 people were killed, is sought to be compared with Pakistan’s own experiences with terrorism.

US sympathy is showing. In 2024, Gen Kurilla said Pakistan suffered over 1,000 terrorist attacks in which 700 security personnel were killed and 2,500 wounded.

Question is, what happens now. Certainly, Gen Munir has impressed the Americans and so his participation in the US Army parade will give him the opportunity to drive home a few asks. There will be the request for zero-tariff Pakistan-US trade; more importantly, there will be the suggestion that the US put pressure on India to unsuspend the Indus Waters Treaty and restart talks.

Be sure that the long and hot summer ahead will be a difficult one. India may hold some of the cards, but it must learn not to hold them so close to its chest. Share your assessment of Pakistan’s perfidy, but don’t gloat about how you’re the bigger and better South Asian nation.

Better to put your head down and re-read your Chanakya or Sun Tzu. Good idea to always keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

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