– THE BENEFICARY

Pakistan is, by large, the greatest terror producer and exporter of the world. The countries that suffer the most are Pakistan’s neighbors, India and Afghanistan, and UK where a large Pakistani population is living.

Unlike ruined Afghanistan or crumbled Iraq Pakistan is a nuclear power with 190 millions people. Treating Pakistan the same as Iraq or Afghanistan is unthinkable. Therefore the only available option is to find a way to cooperate with moderate and secular elements in the Pakistani society in containing Pakistan’s terror industry and to foil its terror export from within Pakistan.

A democratic regime in Pakistan has its own advantage in promoting economical progress, enabling open dialog and secular education and to safeguard human rights, which in the long run are the best way to confront radicalization of Islam and terror. But in the short term most of Pakistan’s population are devoted Muslims with strong support to Islamic movements and radical ideologies and resentment to Western-like culture. No doubt that in the current situation Pakistan’s newly elected democratic regime is very limited in fully encountering the terror threat from within Pakistan.

Pakistan’s democratic regime also faces a major challenge over imposing civilian authority and supervision over its own military and its own notorious intelligence apparatus – ISI.

Pakistan has no way to avoid its responsibility, as a sovereign state, on the Mumbai Carnage in India from 11/28/2008. India provided enough evidence that the perpetrators were all Pakistani citizens, they were recruited and trained in Pakistan, left for their operation from Pakistan, reported to Pakistan, were organized and supervised from Pakistan by activists well known to the Pakistani authorities for many years and almost all of then were sheltered and supported, in some stage in previous years, by the Pakistani intelligence – ISI.   

Since Pakistan is a nuclear power there is little India can do rather then mobilize international pressure on Pakistan to match its International responsibility as a sovereign state. Indeed USA is also looking for ways to, on one hand, support the fragile democratic regime of Pakistan in its war on terror and, on the other hand, to force the same Pakistani regime to do much more especially in regard to the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Since Pakistan is economically very vulnerable and deeply effected by the world’s economic crisis –The economy is the weak point of Pakistan.  

Condoleezza Rice, USA Secretary of State, used the Mumbai Carnage as an opportunity to pressure Pakistan even more. In a diplomatic balancing act, Condoleezza Rice flew, on 12/04/2008, to Pakistan from India. Before leaving Delhi, she compared notes over breakfast with Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was in Pakistan a day earlier.

The main mission of Condoleezza Rice was to persuade India not to reinforce its troop on the Pakistani Border so Pakistan will not be obliged to send its troops from the Afghan border to The Indian border, a move which will be very costly to USA troops in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban.

Eventually USA emerged as the trusted broker between India and Pakistan. She managed to persuade India and Pakistan not to escalate the situation so Pakistani troops will continue to be deployed on the border with Afghanistan and even to improve Pakistan’s army cooperation with USA and NATO-ISAF troops in Afghanistan. India, in fact, remained empty handed in putting the blame for the Mumbai Carnage on Pakistan’s regime.

It seems that USA was, eventually, the real beneficiary of the Mumbai Carnage.

 

 

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