Pepe Escobar in his May 22 article in Asia Times - Pakistan: Slouching towards balkanization - writes: “In the long run, Obama's AfPak strategy may acquire its own relentless, volatile momentum of addicting the military in Islamabad to make war on their own people - be they Pashtuns or Balochis. So Washington may in fact be setting the slow but inexorable march towards the balkanization of Pakistan.”
If Pashtun cousins on both sides of the border - 26 million in Pakistan, 13 million in Afghanistan - eventually find an opening to form a long-dreamed-of Pashtunistan, Pakistan as we know it would break up, Escobar says, adding, “India might intervene to subdue Sind and Punjab, keeping both under its sphere of influence. Washington for its part would rather concentrate on exploiting the natural wealth and strategic value of an independent Balochistan.”
Not surprisingly, Dr. Michel Chossudovsky, director of the Center for Research on Globalization and author of "America's War on Terrorism," gave a similar assessment in his December 2007 article, "The Destabilization of Pakistan." He says: "Washington's foreign policy course is to actively promote the political fragmentation and Balkanization of Pakistan as a nation." Dr. Chossudovsky believes: "The U.S. course consists in fomenting social, ethnic and factional divisions and political fragmentation, including the territorial breakup of Pakistan."
Tellingly, the Swat operation has weakened security situation in the country. On May 27, gun and suicide bomb attacks in the Punjab capital, Lahore, killed at least 30 people and injured hundreds. A day later, three suicide bombings killed at least 14 people in Peshawar and Dera Ismael Khan in the NWFP. High government officials acknowledge that this is the fallout of the “successful” Swat operation, even as the militants warned of more such attacks.
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