America and Pakistan in Search of Peace and Conflict Resolution

America and Pakistan

in Search of

Peace and Conflict Resolution

Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

Reflections on Today’s World of Politics

US President, Donald Trump, and young-looking Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan, met at the White House on July 24. Trump is a master of transforming rhetoric into reality – as he did to the North Korean leader. Both were trying to overcome the historic indifference and prejudice in order to bridge the ever-widening gap between the reality and the perceptions of relationship. If relationships between or among nations are based on the simplicity of truth, wisdom, national interest and integrity, one could foresee political compromises as a virtue to foster friendship. Trump’s body language signalled some positive overtures as America looks for foes and friends to end its occupation of Afghanistan. Pakistan is central to this strategy to facilitate a peaceful and face-saving outcome for American militarism in Afghanistan. Truth is unchanging as it was in 2001 that George W. Bush – an emotionally-disturbed and intellectually-imbalanced president – embarked on military intervention in Afghanistan only to strengthen his standing before the American masses in the wake of the 9/11. Truth is the same today as it was almost two decades ago that America and its NATO allies displaced and killed millions for no other reason except a preposterous and distorted version of warmongering against the poor and the helpless people of Afghanistan who had nothing to do with the 9/11 incident. When false assumptions go unchallenged, reactionary forces entrench in violence and destruction.

Bertrand Russell and Alfred Einstein Manifest (1955) called “a war with H bomb might possibly put an end to the human race.” In 2017, America tested the ‘Mother of All Bombs’ in Afghanistan as if it was an American state. This is how America and NATO destroyed the ancient, peaceful culture of Afghanistan. All wars are dreadful and end up in calamities with ripple effects for centuries to come. It is an evidence of tragic human abnormality that Americans, Afghans and Pakistanis could not unfold humanitarian approaches to resolve the prolonged conflict in Afghanistan. Now, Trump and Imran Khan have come to understand the reality and wisdom of reciprocal forbearance that could usher a just a viable settlement in Afghanistan. But no one should underestimate the prevalent optimistic scepticism linking Pakistan and Afghanistan to a new American policy and practice for change in southwest Asia.

Had America have the political, moral and intellectual capacity to honour its commitments, it would have resolved the Afghan problem via a peaceful agreement with the people of Afghanistan, and have ensured a legitimate elected system of governance for their country. It is not the question whether Taliban or President Ashraf Ghani’s party should govern Afghanistan; it is the people of Afghanistan who have a participatory and final say in concluding the peace deal. Rights of the people and political fairness must be the guiding principles to conclude such a peace pact among the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Military interventions never deliver peace and social harmony; rather they destroy all the substance that could support the societal progress and future-making.

Imran Khan should be careful while assessing Pakistan’s own weaknesses and strengths. He must also learn from the past as to what mistakes were made in the scheme of things of military collaboration with the United States in the region. The USAID gimmicks or the loans from the IMF are not viable strategies for national progress and development. Pakistan must strengthen its domestic socioeconomic and political productivity, advancements and integration. Its progress is the key to international cohesion and service to the neglected masses. Khan does not appear to have expertise in political change, economic productivity and nation-building. He, however, well understands that political corruption is cancerous for the society. He should encourage and engage new generation of educated, intelligent and honest people to participate for building new public institutions, new systems of participatory governance and political accountability in all domains of affairs. He will be wise to enlarge his circle of governance by enlisting educated and proactive visionary men and women of ideas as well as strategic experts for drawing up plans for better service delivery to the people and to ensure a progressive Pakistan.

Trump to Mediate Kashmir – Will He?

As a friendly overture to softening relationship with Pakistan, President Trump offered to mediate the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. Immediately, Indian Prime Minister’s spokesperson denied Trump’s assertion that PM Modi asked him to discuss Kashmir with Pakistan. In politics, arguments and rebuttals could be pondered with varied logical scales. There is a contrast between what India claims to be and what Pakistan stands for and what the people of Kashmir valley aspire to. If we imply canons of rationality, it could clarify the fault lines in tense relationships of India and Pakistan. If India and Pakistan are sincere to find a cure to the overwhelming cruelty, military tyranny and violations of the basic rights of the people of Kashmir, the global community will view them as leaders of peaceful future-making.

For a change, Trump has sensed the rationality of restoring normal ties between the two nuclear rivals. It could help him to gain some political popularity as he got on North Korea – an unthinkable probability becoming a thinkable reality for normalization of mutual relationship. Both India and Pakistan, given their competing claims, cannot deny the fact that Kashmir is the focal issue to a normal future for the masses in both countries. War is madness; if there are people of reason who think about the societal future as well as the wellbeing of the people. Kashmir was never part of India even under the British Raj. In 1947 and 1949, through the UN Security Council resolutions, the people of Kashmir were promised a referendum (plebiscite) to decide about their future whether to join India or Pakistan. It is not the domestic territory of India or Pakistan to undo the truth about Kashmir. There is no sense to shed human blood on a precarious experiment whether India administers Kashmir or Pakistanis does. The conflict must be resolved by addressing the humanitarian problems and sufferings of the people of Kashmir. If Trump, along with Russia and China, could persuade both India and Pakistan to resolve the problem, it could open up new threshold of peace and harmony in southwest Asia.

America Needs a Safe Exist from Afghanistan

In a changing world of global thinking and friendly relationships with others, American foreign policy establishment should think critically as to how best they could communicate to a friend in southwest Asia and enlist urgently needed moral and practical support to pave the way for a peaceful settlement of the Afghanistan crisis. America is a formidable military power but its legend of invincibility has been torn apart by small groups of fighters in Afghanistan. Much of this land of ancient tribal herdsmen is in ruins; its economy, political and civic infrastructures and productivity have been devastated by the insanity of war and civilian lives float between obsessed insecurity, daily bombings and extended graveyards. America cannot undo the history of its own ruthless engagement and strategic failure. This consequence is of its own failed strategy – or no strategy at all – and not of the role of Pakistan or others. If American rational impulses are intact, its policy should focus on a multilateral approach including Pakistan, Iran, India, China and Russia to pool intellectual resources and work out negotiated settlements in Afghanistan and Kashmir. America needs to be rational and see the mirror of its prolonged involvement in a war that has consumed more than 4,000 US soldiers and almost 15,000 wounded veterans. This is no excuse to reinforce aggression against the people of Afghanistan. America needs a safe exit from the prolonged self-engineered crisis.

Russia, China, India and Pakistan Could Help America to Negotiate

Peace in Asia

While individualism is a political trait, authoritarian absolutism is a political sickness and contrary to the principles of liberty and justice. America enjoins a moral and intellectual history of the making of the nation.

“These are the times that try men’s soul”, wrote Thomas Paine in the Common Sense (1776), the political vision and reference for the independence of America from Britain as a nation. If global common sense is the hub of rational thoughts, America under Trump has open lines of communication with President Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. It is rational to assume that Pakistan under PM Imran Khan could facilitate an international gathering inviting Russia, China, India and America to open a dialogue for political change and conflict resolution. This will be a magnanimous forbearance and proactive vision to dispel the notion of war and intransigence and to reshape a turbulent past, be it in Afghanistan or Kashmir and strengthen a legitimate purpose of peace, friendship and sustainable relationships without tyranny of wars and violations of human rights and dignity. Ferocity of wars and violations of human rights cannot be the intelligent hallmarks of a progressive society striving to harmonize the humanity and make sustainable peace as a reality for the future generations.