Last week, the Washington Post published US government papers covering the period of the Bush and Obama administration, under the title ‘The Afghanistan Papers’. This collection of over 2,000 pages, comprises interviews with senior US officials and others directly involved in the Afghanistan conflict. These interviews were conducted by a federal agency under the title, ‘lessons learnt’. Two major aspects on Pakistan flowed from these documents. The first was that considering ‘Pakistan as a friend’ in the country’s trillion-dollar 18-year-long Afghanistan war was a ‘critical error’.

The second was that Pakistan had begun playing a double game as early as 2002. It joined the war against terror, while continuing to support the Taliban and al-Qaeda leadership, especially in finding safe havens and logistics. During these years, 775,000 US troops were deployed in Afghanistan, of which 2,300 soldiers were killed and over 20,500 wounded. Afghanistan and India were aware of Pakistan’s duplicity and raised this regularly with the US. However, with Pakistan permitting the use of its airspace, the belief in the US was that Islamabad was supporting them.

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Few in their hierarchy understood the Pakistani game which led to loss of precious US lives. Recently, Senator Lindsay Graham stated that if Pakistan denied the Taliban safe havens, the war in Afghanistan could end in a few weeks. The collapse of the last USTaliban talks was because Pakistan pushed the Taliban to step up attacks, hoping to add pressure on the US, which backfired. Even now, Pakistan continues its double game, claiming it desires peace in Afghanistan on one hand while backing the Taliban on the other. It is desperate for the Taliban to come to power within the country to utilize their fighters to spread its terrorist agenda across the region. The ex-Pakistan army chief, General Kayani told the then US Ambassador to Pakistan, Ryan Crocker, “one day you’ll be gone again, it’ll be like Afghanistan the first time, you’ll be done with us, but we’re still going to be here because we can’t actually move the country.

And the last thing we want with all of our other problems is to have turned the Taliban into a mortal enemy.” Hence, Crocker recommended that the only option to force Pakistan to change would be for US troops to remain in Afghanistan indefinitely and be given permission to hunt the Taliban on Pakistani territory. Pakistan had been playing a similar double game with India. It keeps calling for talks through its political leadership, while the deep state continues to back and support terrorism. This was the reason why for years there had been no progress on talks between the two countries. It is the present Indian government which took the approach that it would not join talks unless Pakistan stopped supporting terrorist groups and its actions were visible.

Strong Indian response to the Uri and Pulwama strikes pushed Pakistan on the back foot and compelled it to reconsider its open support to terrorist groups. This should be the lesson which the US must imbibe, rather than continue banking on Pakistan to support peace in Afghanistan. If Pakistan is to be pressured and the US desires peace in Afghanistan, ensuring that its withdrawal is orderly and the region does not become a hotbed for terrorism in the region, then it needs to curtail the one nation which has become the base for terrorist strikes across the globe, Pakistan. There is no terrorist strike without a Pakistani link anywhere in the globe. Chinese diplomatic, military and economic support to Pakistan has emboldened the country to continue backing terrorism to destabilize the region.

While the world may not be able to curtail Chinese support, international assistance to Pakistan must be linked to its anti-terrorism actions. Pakistan may not come on the FATF blacklist because of support from China, Malaysia and Turkey; however, institutions like the IMF can be influenced to curtail loans to Pakistan unless it shows it has changed. Nations must stop engaging with Pakistan unless it changes its colours. Simultaneously, targeting terrorist hideouts across the Afghan border into Pakistan will seriously impact the support which it provides as internal pressures would mount.

For almost two decades the US has provided Pakistan with billions of dollars of financial assistance and military weapons, yet it has supported those who have targeted the US. Such was the nature of support being provided by Pakistan that it resulted in the US spending huge sums of money on a fight knowing chances of winning were meagre. It compelled consequent administrations to lie to their own public on the state of the war. Can such an act of deceit be tolerated and accepted? Even banking on Pakistan at this stage is risky. There is no guarantee that Pakistan is genuine in its actions in pushing the Taliban for talks and its desire for peace in Afghanistan.

There is also no guarantee that Pakistan would not exploit Taliban-run Afghanistan to continue supporting other terrorist groups which could threaten global peace and security. Hundreds of ISIS operatives who surrendered to the Afghan armed forces recently were almost all of Pakistani origin. The question which needs consideration is whether they were volunteers or pushed into the hands of the ISIS by the Pakistani deep state. Pakistan has always been claiming that it has lost thousands since it joined the war on terror. The report in the Washington Post exposes the truth. The reality is that Pakistan lost its citizens in incidents of terrorism linked to the Tehreek-e-Taliban (Pakistan), which had nothing to do with the war on terrorism.

These groups rose because of the flawed attack on the Lal Masjid by Musharraf. Pakistan has lied over the years, exploited the US and led to loss and injury to thousands of its citizens. It would continue doing so and possibly with a Taliban-run Afghanistan become the new cradle for terrorism. It must be brought to heel before this happens. It is time the world acts.

(The writer is a retired Major-General of the Indian Army)