Shamsa Ishfaq
Of late, in a Fox News interview with Chris Wallace, President Trump attempted to undermine Pakistan’s sacrifices in US’ global war on terror (GWOT) besides thrashing the sacrifices of US military and their families. In addition, Trump’s tweet followed by the interview claimed that Pakistan does not do “a damn thing” for US. He tweeted, ” .We no longer pay Pakistan the billions of dollars because they would take our money and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another. They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return.
President Trump’s tweets and interview draw criticism alike both at home and abroad. At home because it hurt the sentiments of US military men fighting to preserve state interests in other countries away from their families and abroad for disregarding Pakistan’s sacrifices in US-led global war on terror (GWOT). During interview to Fox News, when President Trump was asked if he is not going to give US Navy SEALs for taking down Bin laden? The answer was, “apparently: not really. Wouldn’t it have been nice if we got Osama Bin Laden a lot sooner than that?” Tweets draw serious criticism as it is seen as President’s score settling with McRaven who publicly termed Trump’s description of the media as the “enemy of the people” as the greatest threat to American democracy he had ever witnessed”. Expressing his dismay, former CIA Director Leon Panetta said Trump owed an apology to McRaven “and all of the special operation forces and intelligence professionals who planned and executed one of the most important counter-terrorism missions in our nation’s history.” Moreover, Panetta called Trump’s criticism “patently ridiculous” and said it “demonstrates a profound lack of understanding of how our military and intelligence agencies operate and undermines the President’s own standing as Commander-in-Chief.” Similarly, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Trump’s comment is “really a slam at the intelligence community” and “reflects, I think, his complete ignorance” about what was involved in hunting down Bin Laden. It took patience and perseverance over a period of years from the intelligence community”. Former deputy CIA Director, Michael Morell tweeted “Correction needed to POTUS’s comment today that McRaven should have found Bin Laden sooner. CIA did the ‘finding.’ McRaven’s special operators did the ‘getting.’ They moved within days of President Obama giving the order.” These few hard-hitting responses from noted figures of US military and intelligence community speak volumes of the fact that Trump appears to be moved more by the “US Deep State” and less by the democracy and the State of US to include Pentagon and other institutions which is creating a resentment against him at home front.
On the contrary, blaming Pakistan for not doing a damn thing for US is in fact a well-thrashed narrative of the US to hide its own failures in Afghanistan at large. Pakistan did more than it can to help fight terrorism as it suffered 75,000 casualties in US’ war besides losing over $123 bn to economy. In return, US “aid” was a miniscule $20 bn. It is time that US should now do a serious assessment of why, despite 140000 NATO troops in addition to 250,000 Afghan troops and reportedly $1 trillion spent on war in Afghanistan; the Taliban today are stronger than before?
Trump seems to be extremely upset and under pressure over its military failure in Afghanistan despite squandering billions of dollars and precious lives, leaving the war torn country’s 75 percent area under the control of Taliban which is unprecedented in this 17 years old war. Contrarily, Pakistan has achieved commendable successes in its fight against terrorism inside its territory as well as in helping US to fight terrorism in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s contribution and unflinching support to GWOT is a fact widely being accepted across the world including number of US stakeholders at different occasions. It is quiet disappointing to note that in his two years of presidency, Trump has not utter a single word of appreciation for Pakistan for fighting US’ war on terror like no other. Trump obstinate behavior is evident from the recent statements where he seems to be operating solo and ill advised with no harmony between the President and his institutions. The Pentagon, in an apparent attempt to lessen the damage caused by Trump’s Twitter outburst, termed Islamabad a critical partner to its South Asian strategy and that there is no change in the military-to-military relationship between Pakistan and the US.
Trump’s hysterical usage of social media to attack foreign governments without taking his advisers or administration into confidence remained under criticism of different quarters in past too. Barbed comments have been tweeted at North Korea, China and Iran, amongst others without realizing its affects and consequences for efforts in nuclear ambit. It would not be naïve to say that Trump is attempting to run the affairs of the super power like a businessperson and not like a politician. His latest anti-Pakistan tweets too sounds more of a failure of business deal and less of a responsible diplomatic account.
