Source: Huff Post by Sunil Sharan via Wasim Srroya
The Afghan endgame is nigh, but India and Pakistan, instead of calming the region, are playing cat and mouse. As America cuts and runs from Afghanistan, Pakistan exults, having defeated a superpower for the second time in a quarter century.
In 1989, it had, through the mujahideen, humiliated the Red Army. Emboldened, it redirected the mujahideen to Kashmir to unclasp it from India’s grip.
India clung on, barely, but deployed half its million-man army there. The struggle between India’s strong-arm tactics, and Pakistani infiltration, continues.
Post-9/11, the Americans forced a reluctant Islamabad to concentrate on its western front, away from India. In return, America poured billions into Pakistan, which, whenever it wanted more, would cough up a jihadi or two. Pakistan stridently denied knowing the whereabouts of bin Laden, Mullah Omar, and other Al Qaeda-Taliban leadership.
Categories: Afghanistan, Asia, Pakistan