Lankan Ranger
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US-Pak relationship based on deceit, double-talk
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari fears he will be bumped off by the country's military, which continues to call the shots behind the civilian facade. Mealy-mouthed Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani supports US Drone strikes in private but says he will oppose it in public.
Washington worries that no amount of aid will wean Pakistan away from using terrorism as a state policy to overcome its structural weakness which it is unwilling to address. Islamabad declined an offer by India to talk about its work in Afghanistan despite complaining to the world about New Delhi's role. All it took was one phone call from Washington to ensure Pakistan did not oppose the US-India nuclear deal at a crucial stage.
Tuesday's WikiLeaks cable dump centering around US ties with Pakistan shows a relationship based on deceit and double-talk, underscored by Islamabad's deep-seated neurosis of India which shows no signs of subsiding despite its crippling internal crisis and Washington's efforts to walk and talk it out of a self-destructive mode.
Many of the cables show a deeply suspicious, fractured leadership. Zardari, for instance, is so fearful of assassination, that one cable relates him as telling US Ambassador Anne Patterson that "he had instructed his son Bilawal to name his sister, Faryal Talpur, as president" if he is killed.
Separately, army chief Kayani tells the US Ambassador during a March 2009 meeting that he "might however reluctantly" pressure Zardari to resign and replace him with Asfandyar Wali Khan, leader of the Awami National Party — and not Zardari's arch foe Nawaz Sharif. He distrusts Sharif more than he dislikes Zardari. Another cable suggests Prime Minister Gilani is a reluctant underling to Zardari.
Although regional specialists have long known such dynamics, the Wikileaks cable dump has laid bare Pakistan's deep divisions in a humiliating manner, along with US efforts to bring some kind of order to the country and save it from self-destruction. The fact that the Pakistani principals share their distrust of each other with American interlocutors and their views are now in public domain is expected to undercut US influence in Pakistan to the detriment of the region.
US officials have been apologizing incessantly to their Pakistani counterparts from the time the cable dump became imminent last week. "The United States deeply regrets the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential," US Ambassador Cameron Munter wrote in Pakistani daily The News. "And we condemn it."
But the damage is done. It will be a while before Pakistanis, who don't trust each other, will trust the Americans.
WikiLeaks shows US-Pak relationship based on deceit, double-talk - The Times of India
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari fears he will be bumped off by the country's military, which continues to call the shots behind the civilian facade. Mealy-mouthed Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani supports US Drone strikes in private but says he will oppose it in public.
Washington worries that no amount of aid will wean Pakistan away from using terrorism as a state policy to overcome its structural weakness which it is unwilling to address. Islamabad declined an offer by India to talk about its work in Afghanistan despite complaining to the world about New Delhi's role. All it took was one phone call from Washington to ensure Pakistan did not oppose the US-India nuclear deal at a crucial stage.
Tuesday's WikiLeaks cable dump centering around US ties with Pakistan shows a relationship based on deceit and double-talk, underscored by Islamabad's deep-seated neurosis of India which shows no signs of subsiding despite its crippling internal crisis and Washington's efforts to walk and talk it out of a self-destructive mode.
Many of the cables show a deeply suspicious, fractured leadership. Zardari, for instance, is so fearful of assassination, that one cable relates him as telling US Ambassador Anne Patterson that "he had instructed his son Bilawal to name his sister, Faryal Talpur, as president" if he is killed.
Separately, army chief Kayani tells the US Ambassador during a March 2009 meeting that he "might however reluctantly" pressure Zardari to resign and replace him with Asfandyar Wali Khan, leader of the Awami National Party — and not Zardari's arch foe Nawaz Sharif. He distrusts Sharif more than he dislikes Zardari. Another cable suggests Prime Minister Gilani is a reluctant underling to Zardari.
Although regional specialists have long known such dynamics, the Wikileaks cable dump has laid bare Pakistan's deep divisions in a humiliating manner, along with US efforts to bring some kind of order to the country and save it from self-destruction. The fact that the Pakistani principals share their distrust of each other with American interlocutors and their views are now in public domain is expected to undercut US influence in Pakistan to the detriment of the region.
US officials have been apologizing incessantly to their Pakistani counterparts from the time the cable dump became imminent last week. "The United States deeply regrets the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential," US Ambassador Cameron Munter wrote in Pakistani daily The News. "And we condemn it."
But the damage is done. It will be a while before Pakistanis, who don't trust each other, will trust the Americans.
WikiLeaks shows US-Pak relationship based on deceit, double-talk - The Times of India
