Not surprisingly, the leaked report, published in The News, about the new 11 demands have shocked the nation. Here are few editorials in Pakistan’s leading newspapers:
It's Time to Resist
Much of the blame rests with our own government. It continued to blindly cooperate with the United States in its War on Terror, instead of refusing to accept the undue pressure brought to bear upon it from time to time.
Fresh offensives were launched in the tribal areas in violation of the peace agreement reached with local tribesmen some time ago. This resulted in the spill over of violence, earlier restricted to the troubled region, into the settled areas of the NWFP and the rest of the country.
The need for a paradigm shift is very important at this crucial time, when the ongoing spate of suicide attacks is posing a serious threat to our internal security. (The Nation)
Assault on Sovereignty
Quite obviously, Pakistan cannot even consider granting most of these demands. If it were to do so, it may as well raise the Stars and Stripes over the country, and accept a status as the 51st state of the United States.
The demands made are obviously absurd and the question arises why they have been put forward at this time. It has been reported that the list, seeking the kind of freedoms the US enjoys in 'conquered' countries such as Iraq, has created a considerable flurry in official corridors.
Certainly, the actions of US private mercenary outfits, such as Blackwater, given contracts in Iraq are enough to cause shivers to run down collective spines. Blackwater's obviously trigger-happy men were involved in the shooting of Iraqis including women and children. They were then whisked out of the country.
Crimes by US military personnel in Japan and South Korea, including rape, have also caused intense local hostility, since the personnel were exempted form local laws.
Any US presence, particularly under any agreement giving personnel a blanket cover to do what they please, would only heighten the strongly felt anti-US sentiments that have fuelled extremism in the first place. (The News)
Making a Wild West of Us
As if the US intrusion was already not enough of it, a set of new demands, which according to a contemporary Washington has come up with, portends making of Pakistan virtually a sprawling Wild West and its citizens another Indian aborigines of America.
The only difference is that instead of settlers, cattlemen and ranchers, here it will be the American diplomats, soldiers and private security militias, having a free run of the country, setting shop wherever they liked and the way they liked and poaching on whoever they want and wherever they want, and with a free ride to kill whoever they wish and maim whoever they desire, without any questions being asked and without being held to account at all.
A law unto themselves will they be, not subject to any law of Pakistan, practically treating this country as their protectorate and a vassal state.
Washington hoped to yield upon politically weak President Musharraf, whose only strong constituency now is Bush Administration, to accept these demands as he did in September 2001. At that time he was legitimacy for his military regime. However after more than six years, situation has changed in Pakistan. A pseudo democratic system is taking shape in Islamabad and it will not be easy to persuade to a political government which will be answerable to a parliament not very friendly to the United States. (Frontier Post)
