Pakistan may finally succeed in its quest for strategic depth in the west with help from an unlikely quarter—its hostile eastern neighbor India. In the wake of India’s targeting of Pakistan and threats of retaliatory strikes the Taleban have said that not only can Pakistan withdraw its forces from the west but the Taleban would also shift to the east to fight alongside Pakistan if it is attacked.
This opens up a whole new scenario. The Pakistan Army is fighting militants in Swat, Bajaur and the FATA but this is seen as the US’s war and not Pakistan’s. Most people think the only problem is the US presence in Afghanistan. There are demands by most political parties that Pakistan needs to pull out its military from the west and carry out negotiations and dialogue. The Taleban offer of support will reinforce this demand and convince many more people that those whom we are fighting are patriotic Pakistanis ready to die for Pakistan. There will be increasing pressure to cease military operations especially because of US strikes in Pakistan territory.
This development has to be viewed in the context of many possibilities. NATO commanders have called the war in Afghanistan as unwinnable. There are questions being asked within the US about the ‘three trillion dollar’ war that the US is fighting in Afghanistan. President Karzai has raised the question of a time line on the US pull out from Afghanistan. President Elect Obama’s idea of moving from Iraq to Afghanistan may not be a winning strategy against the generation of Muslim youth who have faced atrocities in Iraq, the Middle east and Afghanistan and the resurgence of Pashtun nationalism. The global war on terror is being seen as a war on Islam.
If Indian threats escalate, Pakistan will have to redeploy its forces. Changing strategic direction takes time. In fact this is a great opportunity for Pakistan to pull-out of the dead end in the west, reorient to face the east and resolve the issues in FATA and Baluchistan through dialogue under the overall spirit of unity that the Indian threat has evoked. The political bon homie and harmony that has come about will also get a boost.
Patriotic Pakistanis, die
http://pakistanpal.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/strategic-depth/