Pakistan in the US "war on terrorism"

Although the US government had assisted the mujahedeen in the war against the Soviet Union, the US itself became increasingly the object of enmity among radical Islamic militants for its role in the Middle East. Among the grievances against the US were its support for the Israeli occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people and its support for dictatorships, such as the Shah’s regime in Iran and Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, Osama bin Laden lobbied the Saudi government to gather his mujahedeen to fight the Iraqi army and force their withdrawal from Kuwait. Instead, Saudi Arabia agreed to allow US forces onto Saudi soil. The US proceeded to engage in a war that exceeded its mandate under a UN Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force only to defend Kuwait and force the withdrawal of the Iraqi military, resulting in war crimes such as the slaughter of retreating Iraqi military forces, massive civilian casualties, and the destruction of the Iraqi infrastructure.

Following the war, the US was the principal party responsible for the implementation and continuation of sanctions which further punished the Iraqi people for the crimes of their tyrannical leader. The UN sanctions regime only served to strengthen Saddam by making the population more dependent upon him and greatly reduced the possibility that they might rise up and overthrow him. By the UN’s own account, the sanctions also resulted in the deaths of a million Iraqis, including half a million children.

This encouraged further the existing enmity for American policies throughout the Middle East and was a cause célèbre for bin Laden and other extremists to garner sympathy for their cause.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the US government accused Osama bin Laden of masterminding the plot and demanded that the Taliban regime in Afghanistan turn him over to the US. The Taliban agreed to take the matter into consideration if the US were to provide evidence of bin Laden’s involvement, but the US rejected any sort of diplomacy and instead began its war against Afghanistan.

While the US never publicly presented any evidence of bin Laden’s involvement in the plot, it was reported that Indian intelligence had helped to track the money trail and discovered that it was at the behest of the head of the ISI, General Mahmud Ahmed, that $100,000 was wired to lead hijacker Mohammed Atta in Florida (later identified as the mastermind of the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed also had known ties to the ISI, and Musharraf himself claimed he was formerly an agent of MI6, Britain’s intelligence agency).

India had handed over its evidence to the FBI, yet the 9/11 Commission Report that was mandated with investigating terrorist attacks against the US, although acknowledging Pakistan’s role in supporting the Taliban and al-Qaeda, concluded that the attacks received no support from any foreign government and stated that the question of who financed the attacks was “of no practical significance,” and thus avoiding the whole embarrassing affair.

Pakistan, which had been the Taliban’s greatest benefactor and one of only three nations to recognize the legitimacy of their regime, was given an ultimatum by the US after 9/11. According to Musharraf, the US threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the Stone Age” if it refused to cooperate with the US to overthrow the Taliban (an objective that some reports had indicated was on the minds of some in Washington even prior to 9/11 because the Taliban was proving to be an obstacle to several proposed pipeline projects).

But military action was deemed politically unfeasible until the terrorist attacks (as was also the case for the later invasion of Iraq). Indeed, the 9/11 attacks were seen as an “opportunity” by many so-called “neoconservatives” in positions of power who had long argued that the US military was in need of “transformation” into a force capable of enforcing US global hegemony, but that absent some “external shock”, like “a new Pearl Harbor”, the necessary transformation would be an arduous task due to strong domestic opposition after the end of the “Cold War”.

After it was reported in the international media (the only mention in the US was a short opinion piece on the Wall Street Journal’s website, which mentioned it almost in passing) that the chief of Pakistan’s intelligence agency—the equivalent of the US Director of Central Intelligence—had been directly involved the 9/11 attacks, Mahmud Ahmed was quietly removed from his position and replaced, and Musharraf publicly pledged to assist the US in its “war on terrorism”.

The means by which the US waged the war in Afghanistan was to use a loose coalition of warlords known as the Northern Alliance as a proxy force.  The CIA doled out cash and supplied intelligence to the warlords as they waged offenses against the retreating Taliban, while the Pentagon gradually increased the presence of US troops to secure conquered areas. Eventually, many Taliban and al-Qaeda members, reportedly including bin Laden, were driven into the mountains at Tora Bora. Despite intensive bombardment and an aggressive offensive, the US failed to prevent the escape of militants towards and across the Pakistani border.

In addition, it was widely reported that the US had made an arrangement with Pakistan whereby Pakistan would send air transports into Afghanistan in order to evacuate Pakistani nationals. Many Taliban and al-Qaeda members, Pakistani or not, were evacuated during the operations.

The US boasted of its victory over the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, despite the failure to capture Osama bin Laden, whose importance was played down. General Tommy Franks denied that it was one of the objectives of the war to capture or kill bin Laden and stated that “the mission, the direction from the president, was to remove the Taliban” and disrupt terrorist training camps. General Richard Meyers stated that “The goal there was never after specific individuals.” And President Bush said he was “truly…not that concerned about him.”

With a new safe haven in Pakistan, the Taliban began to regroup and gather more recruits to fight the US and what was perceived to be its puppet government in Afghanistan, which was actually in control of very little of the country. Instead, the warlords the US had allied itself with took control of the countryside, many of whom were the same warlords the Afghan people were so glad to be rid of earlier that they had initially greeted the Taliban as their liberators.

Much of the countryside, under control of the warlords, once again became cultivated for the poppy crop. Poppy farming and heroin production had been greatly reduced under the Taliban, and the US had even given the Taliban millions of dollars, ostensibly to assist in their campaign to eradicate the crop and drugs trade. As a result of the US war, Afghanistan rose once again to become the world’s leading supplier of opium, surpassing all past records until virtually all of the world’s heroin was being supplied by poppies grown in Afghanistan.

Before long, international agencies and expert analysts were describing the drugs trade as a major source of financing for radical militants and terrorists, including the Taliban, al-Qaeda, its splinter cells, and associated terrorist organizations.

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