While many Americans blame Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's regime for not delivering on its commitment to root out terrorist operatives from its territory despite receiving massive US aid for that purpose, strategic affairs specialist Ashley Tellis, has said that 'the reality, however, is more complex,' and should not be ignored.
Mumbai-born Tellis, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace -- a Washington-based think tank -- while acknowledging that 'Pakistani counter-terrorism effectiveness has fallen short of what Americans expect,' argued that 'Islamabad's failures in this regard are not simply due to a lack of motivation.'
"Instead, the convulsive political deterioration in the North West Frontier Province in Pakistan, Islamabad's military ineptitude in counter-terrorism operations, and the political failures of the Karzai government have all exacerbated the problem," he said.
Thus, he predicted -- in a report titled 'Pakistan: Conflicted Ally in the War or Terror' that was released to coincide with Musharraf's removal of his army uniform and his entry into the world of civilian garb -- that 'the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban will be a long one requiring considerable patience on the part of the United States."
Tellis faulted the Bush administration, saying that it 'has compromised its ability to secure stronger Pakistani cooperation by speaking in discordant voices, failing to maintain the proper balance between public praise and private pressure, and, until very recently, emphasizing inalterable political support to Musharraf rather than Musharraf as a means to accelerate the political transformation of Pakistan and secure victory in the war on terror.'
'The political crisis caused by Musharraf's 'second coup' in Pakistan sharply demonstrates the limits of Washington's influence,' he said.
But Tellis, obviously in responding to Congressional calls for US aid for Pakistan to be made conditional on Pakistan's performance in the war on terror, warned that it would only inflame Pakistani public opinion and embarrass moderate Pakistanis who cooperated with the United States.
He also slammed suggestions by some presidential candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, who have called for unilateral military action within Pakistan to root out the Al Qaeda and Taliban, saying such a policy could re-cast Pakistan as an adversary.
Tellis said, 'If unilateral military action were to become the announced policy of the United States, such a policy would likely conclude eventually in the designation of Pakistan as an adversary of the United States.'
'Whatever Islamabad's failings may be,' he said, 'the prospect of having to treat a large and precariously poised Muslim state, armed with nuclear weapons and with an unsavory record of proliferation, as a mortal adversary should give pause to even the most jaded politician.'
