Abhi Yerra

Reading the New York Times article on Pakistan’s absence in curbing Taliban insurgency I am still wondering why the US is even supporting Pakistan at this point. The government is weak, the army and the intelligence are clearly calling the shots, and people seem fine with the coming of the militants. It is clear that our trust that Pakistan will do the right thing is highly questionable especially with the leniency with which it has allowed the Taliban and other terrorists groups such as the one linked with the Mumbai attacks to continue.

The government is extremely weak in Pakistan. When, following the Mumbai attacks, the prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, offered the ISI’s support in helping India the army shot it down. When, according  to the article, the government wanted to send army troops to fight the militants, yet again, the army rejected it since it did not want to move troops away from the border from India.

This basically says that the ISS and the army are still in the modality that India is the enemy to fight especially to get Kashmir. My question is what are they going to do if they get Kashmir? They haven’t shown any competence in self management what good will adding more territory do? At this point I think Kashmir should gain independence from both India and Pakistan, both are bad stewards of the land and the people have suffered immensly under both.

Kashmir and India should be the least of Pakistan’s worry, but the mentality has been set. The army which gets a $1 billion from the United States doesn’t spend it on fighting terrorism, but fighting India. If this is the case then the US should not give this money to Pakistan which is just provoking another war in the region. If money is to be given thre should be strict guidelines in how it should be used.

At this point I don’t think that Pakistan can even be trusted. They had 8 years to show us that they will fight a battle against terrorism, but in those years their own region has fallen under the terrorists’ mousetrap.