WASHINGTON: The United States has begun downsizing and shifting out its military operations from Pakistan amid continuing tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi and what Washington believes are increased chances of war.
Reports from Pakistan say the Musharraf regime began asking the US military to return two of the four bases ñ Jacobabad and Pasni -- lent to it for the Afghan operation because of the tensions with India. Whether or not this was a pressure tactic to get the US to lean on India to relax its pressure is unclear, but it transpires that US generals have agreed to move their assets out of Pakistan.
Pakistan has previously threatened to pull back its forces from the western border with Afghanistan to counter the Indian pressure on the eastern flank, causing some consternation in Washington that it would enable Taliban and al-Qaeda to slip away or slip into Pakistan. But with no sign of the top Taliban and al-Qaeda leadership and reports of US forces having secured a passage into Pakistan to chase down the fugitives, Washington has signaled it is ready to dispense with the bases in Pakistan.
The Washington Post reported Friday that the Pentagon is focusing on preparing the large US-built airport outside the Afghan city of Kandahar for a high volume of operations. It also is moving quickly to shift air operations from Pakistan to other locations, such as newly obtained bases in the Central Asian nations of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
"As we continue to improve the capabilities of the airport at Kandahar, staging from other bases in Pakistan might be less of a requirement for us," the paper quoted an unnamed three star general saying. "In other words, we could fly from other places directly into Kandahar."
Pakistani officials acknowledge that Islamabad had notified the United States late in December that if hostilities broke out with India, the Pakistani military planned to move forces onto some of the bases currently being used by US forces. According to one report, Pakistan has already begun to share two of the bases that it had given up for exclusive American use.
What is significant is that instead of leaning on India to relax the pressure, Washington is choosing readily to wind down operations in Pakistan, lending some credence to the theory that the US is quite happy to use the tensions to force Islamabad into action. US officials say Pakistan has realised that it had incorrectly assumed that the US military presence in Pakistan would force India to restrain its military mobilization.
According to a Pakistani official cited in the Post, Islamabad originally argued that it would need to evict the US forces altogether from the bases in Jacobabad and Pasni, but after extensive negotiations between senior officials, it agreed to let some US forces remain there.
US officials were once again publicly appreciative of Pakistani cooperation in Washingtonís war on terrorism but said the United States has made a point of minimizing its "footprint" in Pakistan from the start.
The Bush administrationís policy has caused dismay in Pakistan. The Dawn newspaper editorially questioned what it saw as an ìAnglo-American tiltî towards India.
ìWhile India is behaving the way it always has, the cause for concern is the attitude of the leaders of the US-led world coalition. If not dubious, it is enigmatic. The whole world knows who has created the present crisis on the borders. Yet no western leader has found it fit to utter one word to indicate who he thinks is the guilty party,î it said.
Indian officials say the signal from the whole world, including the Islamic world, is that Pakistanís militaristic policy against India, including the use of terrorism, is at the root of the problem, and unless Islamabad renounces it, it will continue to suffer.
ìWhatís the fuss? Why donít they just hand over the terrorists, crack down on the camps, renounce terrorism and earn the gratitude of the whole world?î an Indian official asked.
That line of thought, articulated repeatedly during Home Minister L K Advani's visit to Washington this week, has brought no response from Pakistan. Attention now turns to the speech Musharraf was to give on Saturday, although some reports from Pakistan suggest the address may have been deferred to Sunday or Monday.
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