The Admiral’s Swan Song

Admiral Mullen long thought to be a friend of Pakistan (by Pakistanis) with a special rapport with its leadership made what he said was his last appearance before the US Senate Armed Services Committee. In his testimony Admiral Mullen last Thursday blamed Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for aiding the Haqqani Network in launching attacks on US Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul. He called the Haqqanis a “veritable arm of the ISI”. Panetta had earlier hinted at US strikes in North Waziristan if the Haqqanis were not taken on by the Pakistan military. The White House on Friday called on Pakistan to sever ties with Haqqanis. Admiral Mullen also said –"in choosing to use violent extremism as an instrument of policy, the government of Pakistan, and most especially the Pakistani army and ISI, jeopardizes not only the prospect of our strategic partnership but Pakistan's opportunity to be a respected nation with legitimate regional influence. They may believe that by using these proxies, they are hedging their bets or redressing what they feel is an imbalance in regional power. But in reality, they have already lost that bet." 

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PICTURE PERFECT

Pakistanis should be pardoned if they are seeing too much in recent events. The dots they are connecting to make a picture are far too big to ignore and it would be moronic to consider them as coincidences. There was Admiral Mullen’s extraordinary statement blaming the government of Pakistan for the killing of journalist Saleem Shahzad while an investigation was in progress. This was followed by a statement from the State Department expressing concern over the same event. The Washington Post carried an article based on a letter supposedly written by a North Korean alleging military involvement in the proliferation episode that Pakistan had investigated and closed. The New York Times demanded – yes demanded – the removal of the Director General Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) as a prequel to the ‘restructuring’ of that organization.

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