Americans try to use weapons-aid to clear
Af-Pak NATO terror goods supply route!
-DR. ABDUL
RUFF COLACHAL
_______________
Clearly,
Americans have taken every Pakistani a beggar who would surrender to American
will in order to gain some while coins. In fact, over years of passive attitude
of Islamabad to aggressive NATO terror attacks and massacres of Muslims inside
Pakistan and nearby, has made the Pentagon and White House to ignore
sovereignty of Pakistan and equate Pakistani rulers as being equivalent to a
few terror goods.
Today
the US military secretary Chuck Hagel has tactfully used an aid program that
has sent “billions of dollars” worth weapons to Islamabad to bully Pakistani
leaders that if they don't resolve protests stalling some military shipments
across the border with Afghanistan, it could be difficult to maintain the
military - political support in Washington.
This
is the essence of US coercive diplomacy unleashed from Washington globally for
years since the Sept-11 hoax, now making Pakistan as well as Afghanistan deadly
destabilized nations in South Asia. .
Americans
have been using Pakistani territories as their own colony to conduct drone
terror attacks on Pakistanis and ship terror goods to Afghanistan by using
Central Asian republics.
The
Pakistani government blocked the supply crossings for seven months following
U.S. airstrikes that accidentally killed two dozen soldiers on the Afghan
border in November 2011. Pakistan finally reopened the routes after the U.S.
apologized. The rift largely led the U.S. to sever most aid to Pakistan for
some time, but relations were restored in July 2012. Since then the U.S. has
delivered over $1.15 billion in security assistance to Pakistan. Some of the
items include advanced communications equipment, roadside bomb jammers, night
vision goggles and surveillance aircraft. Since July 2012, relations between
Washington and Islamabad have been improving. Sharif met with President Barack
Obama and Hagel in late October in Washington.
That
more and more Pakistanis hate Americans is evident from the way people come in
large numbers to attend anti-America rallies conducted by former cricketer
Imran Khan’s popular political outfit Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Just last week,
anti-American protests along one of the primary border crossing routes in
Pakistan prompted the USA to stop the shipments from Torkham Gate through
Karachi last week, due to worries about the safety of the truckers. The
protests center on the CIA's drone program that has targeted and killed many
terrorists, but has caused civilian casualties.
Shireen
Mazari, the information secretary for the political party Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf, said in a statement it's time for the government to speak
forcefully to the USA to demand an end to the drone attacks. The party is
leading the protests.
America,
frustrated that Pakistan plays the popularity card and hundreds of
military shipments heading out of Afghanistan have been stopped on the land
route through Pakistan because of anti-American protests, faces the possibility
of flying out equipment at an additional cost of $1 billion.
Reports
suggest that upon US threat to end service charges in arms to Islamabad, Hagel
had back-to-back meetings this morning with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the
new army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif, in a move to further repair what has been a
strained and sputtering relationship between Washington and Islamabad.
USA
claims that its tricks worked in Islamabad and Hagel has already
received assurances from the Pakistan government that they would take
"immediate action" to resolve the shipment problem in US favor and
modality would be worked out in secret, though the officials did not provide
details on how that might be done.
During
the hegal-Pakistan meetings some of the more contentious issues also were
raised, including affected and destabilized Islamabad's opposition to ongoing
CIA drone strikes and Washington's frustration with Pakistan's reluctance to go
after the freedom fighters like Haqqani patriotic network, which, according to
CIA story, operates along the border and conducts attacks on US and coalition
troops in Afghanistan.
Though
USA has claims its right to kill Pakistanis by calling them as terrorists.
Sharif’s office says the prime minister and Hagel had "in-depth exchanges
on a whole range of issues of mutual interest" including bilateral
defense, security cooperation and Afghanistan. Sharif conveyed Pakistan's deep
concern over continuing US drone strikes, "stressing that drone strikes
were counter-productive to our efforts to combat terrorism and extremism on an
enduring basis," a statement said. The officials acknowledged that
little progress was made other than to agree to continue talking.
Hagel
is first high ranking US official to meet with the Army chief, who took over at
the end of last month. The last Pentagon chief to visit Pakistan was Robert
Gates in January 2010. Following their meeting in Rawalpindi, Hagel and Sharif
echoed each other's desire to work to strengthen the countries' ties. The top
military men discussed the defense relationship between the two countries and
regional stability, according to the Pakistani army chief's office. Hagel flew
to Pakistan from Afghanistan, where he visited US troops but declined to meet
with President Hamid Karzai, who seems to have rankled the US by refusing to
sign a security agreement before year's end. After leaving Islamabad, he flew
to Saudi Arabia where he is meeting with Crown Prince Salman, and then to
Qatar, where he will speak to US troops tomorrow.
More
than a week after Pakistani officials promised Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
that they would take "immediate action" to resolve the problem,
dozens of protesters are still gathering on the busy overland route, posing a
security threat to convoys carrying US “military equipment” out of the war zone
before combat ends a year from now.
Americans
said flying the military equipment out of Afghanistan to a port will cost five
to seven times as much as it does to truck it through Pakistan. About a hundred
trucks are stacked up at the border, and hundreds more are loaded and stalled
in compounds, waiting to leave Afghanistan. The shipments consist largely of
military equipment that is no longer needed now that the Afghan war is ending.
Sending the cargo out through the normal Pakistan routes will cost about $5
billion through the end of next year, including armored vehicles, out of
Afghanistan to ports in the Middle East, where it would be loaded onto ships,
would cost about $6 billion if it continued through next year, said the
official.
A
northern supply route, which runs through Uzbekistan and up to Russia, was used
for about seven months last year when Pakistan shut down the southern passages
after U.S. airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at two border
posts. That northern route, however, was used primarily to bring shipments into
Afghanistan, and is much longer, more costly and often requires cargo to be
transferred from trucks to rail.
Cargo
usually goes through the Torkham crossing in northern Pakistan or the Chaman
crossing in southern Pakistan's Baluchistan province. As the USA drawdown in
Afghanistan continues, the goal has been to move about 30 shipments per day out
of Afghanistan to Karachi. Shipments through Torkham stopped in late November.
U.S. officials say that just a small percentage is taken out through the Chaman
route because it is more dangerous and crosses through the insurgency-plagued
Baluchistan province.
Pentagon
says they have seen no effort by the Pakistanis to stop the protests, which
prompted the U.S. three weeks ago to halt NATO cargo shipments going through
the Torkham border crossing and toward the port city of Karachi. Hagel
received assurances from Pakistan leaders during the meetings that they would
resolve the problem but no progress has been made.
A
Pakistani official says the government is looking for a peaceful settlement but
notes that citizens have the right to protest as long as they are not violent.
The
protesters are demonstrating against the CIA's drone program, which has
targeted and killed many terrorists but has also caused civilian casualties.
The group gathers daily at a toll booth on the outskirts of the provincial
capital of Peshawar, in Pakistan's northern Khyber Paktunkhwa province. All
traffic going into the tribal areas and on to the Torkham crossing must pass through
the toll booth.
The
protesters, however, appear to be in this for the long haul. Khalid had a
schedule listing who would be manning the sit-in each day through mid-January.
Earlier
this week, a group of about 40 protesters were at the toll booth, including
about 10 who were waving flags as vehicles and trucks drove past. A makeshift
enclosure was set up on the side of the road, complete with chairs arranged
under a tent encircled by barbed wire to keep the protest from spilling into
traffic.
A
few police officers stood nearby, with orders to allow the protests to go on
but ensure that no one got unruly or attacked the drivers. The group has been
stopping container trucks going into Afghanistan and looking at their papers to
determine whether they are carrying cargo bound for NATO troops. If so, the
protesters force the trucks to turn around. PTI leader Khalid said the group
got instructions not to stop trucks coming out of Afghanistan into Pakistan,
and added that they've also noticed there has been little traffic coming from
Karachi and heading into Afghanistan. Companies know, he said, that they will
be turned back at the checkpoint. It has been about a week since the protesters
encountered a truck carrying NATO goods.
Shah
Farman, a PTI member who serves as the provincial information minister, said
the national government, controlled by the Pakistan Muslim League-N, hasn't
moved to aggressively reopen the route because they don't want to be seen as
supporting the drone campaign. "Why is the federal government silent?
Because they can't go against the public pulse," said Farman.
A
July 2012 agreement between Pakistan and the U.S. allows NATO to take supplies
out of Afghanistan through Pakistan. But she said the issue is a sensitive one
due to the widespread opposition to the U.S. drone strikes in
Pakistan. Tasnim Aslam, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
said"Obviously the government would be looking for a peaceful way out to
move the protesters from there, to convince them to move," she said.
"Our constitution gives people this right, if they're not violent. They
have the right to protest. So I don't know if they can be forcibly removed from
that place."
People are
eager
to defend the sovereignty of their nation.
Heavy
Notes
Pakistan
has called the drone strikes a violation of the country's sovereignty, but the
issue is muddied by the fact that Islamabad and the military have supported at
least some of the strikes in the past. However, Sharif has not taken any
genuine steps to end US drone teroirsm in Pakistan.
Strangely,
Hagel's warning to the Pakistanis is ridiculous. Washington shamelessly equates
US arms with money loss for Islamabad when the NATO supply route reflects
what has been a growing but unnecessary ”frustration” among US Congressmen with
Pakistan in recent years.
Who
are the Americans who occupy Pakistan to warn the Pakistanis?
But
is Pakistan duty-bound to shield American fascist, imperialist interests along
the Silk Route? Have Pakistanis voted Sharif and allies to power only to help
the Americans in “performing” massacres of Pakistani Muslims?