PAKISTAN The war in Afghanistan is not only spilling over into Pakistan, but the US is intent on imposing its military, political and economic supremacy across South Asia, explains Naeem Malik. Naeem is a member of South Asian Alliance, Birmingham, UK. www. southasianalliance.org and exposes
According to General Sir David Richards, the new head of the British army, the role of UK troops in Afghanistan will evolve but their job might take as long as 30 to 40 years. Speaking before taking up his post he insisted: "It will take time, and added, 'there is absolutely no chance of Nato pulling our...? special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan told a hearing in Washington in June: We need to put the most heavy possible pressure on our friends in Pakistan to join us in the fight against the Taliban and its allies.' He went on to say, 'We cannot succeed in Afghanistan without Pakistan's support and involvement.
These pronouncements by the military leaders of the allied forces signal the new phase in the war and will heighten tensions between the US and the other world powers vying for influence across South Asia.
Both China and Russia will see these statements as threats to their long term objectives in the region. Despite its co-operation in Afghanistan, Iran may see them as a threat to its own sovereignty, particularly
Tehran*
IRAQ Baghdad
IRAN
SAUDI QATAR
ARABIA global tensions in light of the events following the presidential elections in Iran.
The US globalisation strategy is the driving force behind the latest stage in the conflict in the region. The new rivalries emerging out of decades of conflicts and crises of capitalism are also a contributing factor. China is threatening US interests in the region and both China and Russia could emerge economically stronger from the current economic crisis than most of the Western countries, particularly United States. China is busy extending its presence in South Asia, investing heavily in development projects and communications infrastructure within Pakistan in particular.
China is building the Gwadar Port in Pakistan on a route linking Iran and the Gulf states to the world's busiest trade routes and to China itself. whom have been kidnapped nationalist groups) are also working on road and potential pipe routes to China and developing Pakistan's scarce energy supplies.
The US has dominated Dushanbi TAJIKISTAN CHIN Kabul, AFGHANISTAN Kandahar.
INDIA Arabian
27 the region militarily and politically since the Cold War but now finds its influence in Pakistan seriously challenged economically by the Chinese.
From China's point of view the extended presence of the US in the region poses a threat to its own economic penetration. Although, it might appear that China shares the same objectives in the 'war on terror as the West, these appearances are misleading.
States do sponsor terrorism and conflicting movements as part of their global strategies. The US has sponsored most of the so-called Jihadist elements against the Soviets in the past. The Chinese government will be drawing similar links between the problems it faces with the country's Muslim minorities and the US strategy in the region. Also, China's investment in Pakistan's infrastructure is jeopardised, particularly in the Gwadar Port, as a result of the increasing US military domination of Pakistan and the military action in the north and west of the country.
The US globalisation strategy and the increasing militant resistance to the occupation of Afghanistan has necessitated the stepping up of the Afghan war. Pakistan's military operation and the US drone attacks in the north west of Pakistan are part of intensifying the war on terror in the region.
The focus of this war, according to the US, has moved from Iraq to South and Central Asia, particularly Afghanistan and Pakistan. For Washington to stabilise its Afghan adventure it must increase its presence in Afghanistan. To sustain the increase in its forces the US
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28 needs to protect and improve its supply lines through Pakistan.
The importance of Pakistan in this phase of the fighting is emphasised by the war in Afghanistan now being referred to as the 'AFPAK' war. Also, UK prime minister Gordon Brown and foreign secretary The US has dominated the region militarily and politically since the Cold War but now finds its influence in Pakistan seriously challenged economically by the Chinese David Miliband have both been emphasising the danger Pakistan poses to Britain in the form of potential acts of terrorism. This again was underlined earlier this year when 10 Pakistani students were arrested under anti-terror laws in Manchester and Liverpool.
For some time now the US and its allies have been telling the world that they have more or less achieved their mission in Iraq and that they are now ready to withdraw their forces from Iraq and direct them towards Afghanistan and Pakistan as these two countries now pose the major threat to the national security interests of the US and the UK. According to Gordon Brown Pakistan poses the greatest threat to the UK on this front.
The UK has now withdrawn most of its active troops from Irag and sent additional troops to Afghanistan. The United States has almost doubled its forces in Afghanistan in the last few months and has been trying to get other members of the coalition to increase their share of the forces there as well. It needs to step up its supplies to cope with the growing numbers of troops it is sending.
Some 70 percent of all supplies to NATO and allied forces in Afghanistan go through Pakistan and are under constant attack by the insurgents. Many of the trucks carrying US supplies to Afghanistan have been burned in Pakistan by the forces supporting the resistance in Afghanistan. Sometimes whole depots have been destroyed and supply lines closed for several days.
Some thirty years after the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan the country has not yet returned to anything resembling peace. The USsponsored 'war on terror' has moved into a phase - one in which Pakistan will not just be the facilitator of the fighting in Afghanistan but the main arena in which this war will be fought. To sustain the increase in its forces the US needs to protect and improve its supply lines through Pakistan
The people of Pakistan mostly disown the war. The elite, Pakistan's civil administration and the NGO-based civil society organisations, including some with left credentials, tend to be generally supportive of the war on terror. The current military operation of the Pakistan government against the Taliban and its allies in the north west of the country has so far displaced over 2.5 million people. The competition to earn a livelihood between the refugees and the settled population could well result in ethnic conflict in some of Pakistan's major cities like Karachi.
PAKISTAN Afghan refugee camp
The last Afghan war against Soviet occupation created a similar movement of peoples into Pakistan and one of the lasting consequences of the "jihad' against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan on Pakistan was the "kalashnikov culture". Some organisations created within Pakistan during the first Afghan war still persist and are behind some of the so-called ethnic violence in Pakistan. Religious/ ethnic divisions will give the US the pretext to intervene further in the country under the guise of securing a secular, progressive and moderate Pakistan.
The anti-war movement needs to publicise the danger to world security presented not only by the war in Afghanistan but by the spilling over of the war into Pakistan and the increasing incursions of the US into South Asia to shore up its economic and military supremacy.