America scapegoating Pakistan

When President Donald Trump announced Afghan policy in August 2017, he adopted threatening posture towards Pakistan. Nikky Haley, US ambassador in the UN and members of US administration are in chorus stopping the aid to Pakistan. They are blaming Pakistan for failures of the NATO and American forces to defeat Taliban and hurling threats to slap sanctions if Pakistan does not accept the dictates from the US. The US is trying to scapegoat Pakistan for their failures, as the Taliban control about 43 per cent and Daesh and others about 7 per cent of Afghan territory.
The US is pushing Pakistan against the wall and pressurizing it to take action against the Taliban and Haqqani network (which Pakistan has already done), or bring the Taliban on negotiating table. They know that Pakistan neither has leverage nor the influence over the Taliban leaders and commanders to bring them to negotiating the table, yet they raise the demand which Pakistan cannot meet.
If one scrutinizes the claims of billions of American dollars to Pakistan and figure out their impact, the reality would be quite contrary to the claims. As far as US military assistance to Pakistan is concerned much of its aid is the reimbursement for money Pakistan spent on America’s behalf. Pakistan is indeed the victim of cross-border terrorism and suffering from terrorist sanctuaries in Afghanistan (TTP extremists working at the behest of NDS-RAW nexus). Now the onus of clearing more than 50 per cent of the territory lies on Afghan National Defence and coalition forces to bring peace and stability in Afghanistan and in this region. The growing Daesh footprint in Afghanistan especially on neighboring districts of Pakistan speaks volumes about utter failure on the part of Afghan government/Coalition forces. US outrageous behavior is tantamount to pushing Pakistan against the wall to force Pakistan to look for other avenues of cooperation.
The question is that after giving sacrifices and imperiling our security for the US sake, what Pakistan got in return except betrayals, sanctions and insinuations from the ally? During 1965 war with India, a snap embargo was placed on all US military supplies, including spare parts for our military predominantly equipped with American weaponry. Pakistan’s people know their American ‘friends’ more for betrayal than for any fidelity, and that list of betrayals while already very long is now increasing spectacularly. The US recounts time and again about economic and security aid to Pakistan. It will be pertinent to give breakdown of $33 billion President Trump has quoted in this tweet. Since 2002, the figure of economic assistance given to Pakistan by the US is $10. 85 bn, security assistance $ 7.96 bn, and under coalition support fund (CSF) $14.57 bn, which is reimbursement of expenses incurred by Pakistan and compensation for providing logistical and operational support to coalition forces in Afghanistan.
However, Pakistan has taken the position that mutual respect and co-operation at military, intelligence and diplomatic levels should be the hallmark of relations between the two countries. As regards President Trump’s allegation that Pakistan has betrayed the US, it is not true. In fact, Pakistan has been betrayed by the US many a time in the past. Anyhow, the US is trying to find justification to stay in Afghanistan. Defence analysts throughout the world had presaged that the US will never quit Afghanistan for various reasons, and President Trump’s measures are privy to that forecast. Of course, the first and the foremost reason is maintaining a powerful influence in Afghanistan, because those interests will be jeopardized if armed conflict eventually breaks out among various forces contending for power in Kabul including the Taliban, which held power 1996-2001 until the US invasion.
The second reason is that Afghanistan is an extremely important geopolitical asset for the US, particularly because it is the Pentagon’s only military base in Central Asia. Thirdly, by staying in Afghanistan the US can oversee Iran, Pakistan, China and various resource-rich former Soviet republics as well as Russia. Last but not the least; it can exploit the mineral resources in Afghanistan. In fact, America has been unfair throughout its relations with Pakistan. After using Pakistan as a pawn in their triumphant proxy war against the Soviet invaders in Afghanistan, the Americans ‘repaid’ by slapping all nuclear-related sanctions and bequeathing on us the tinderbox of religious fanaticism. Pakistan has made it clear that aid or no aid it would take the fight against terrorism to logical conclusion, and would not give a damn to American arrogance or threats.