Guest Column | Downward Spiral

Radhavinod Raju 

The stand-off between the United States and Pakistan, which began in late November 2011, with the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers by an airborne NATO attack in Salala on the border with Afghanistan, and resulted in the closure of the NATO supply lines and the Shamsi airbase from where some of the Drone attacks used to be mounted, had threatened to spoil US attempts to peacefully wind down their operations in Afghanistan. Many in the Pakistani establishment believed that the closure of the NATO supply lines would bring the Americans on their knees.

Pakistan demanded an apology from the Americans for the unprovoked NATO attacks. For the Americans, who had sunk billions of dollars in a mostly unproductive exercise to influence the Pakistan Army to use its influence with the Taliban to bring them round for talks and negotiations, and to go after the Haqqani network which was inflicting unacceptable damage on American lives in Afghanistan, it was time to call Kayani’s bluff. But the spiralling down of relations had started much earlier, in the beginning of 2011 itself.

In January 2011, Raymond Davis, a CIA agent was driving through Lahore when a motorbike carrying two men, coming from the opposite direction, swerved in front of his car. The pillion passenger was armed with a gun. Davis opened fire with his Glock pistol, killing both of them, leading to a furore, and loud anti-American and anti-CIA criticism in the media and frenzied mobs shouting slogans against the United States through the length and breadth of the country. Pakistan ordered the CIA to downsize its operations, and many American operatives were sent back. This was the beginning of the downward spiral in US-Pakistan relations, with the US trying to get the release of its operative, and a hostile press and right wing parties pressurising the government not to show him any leniency. Ultimately, the Americans paid blood money to get the release of Davies, and quietly whisked him away.

The tracking of al Qaeda Chief Osama bin Laden by the CIA and the operation mounted by the American Seals deep inside Pakistan in early May 2011, is probably the most sensational and successful counter terrorism operation of the century. The Americans did not inform the Pakistan government before the event, or consider that their assistance was necessary though the operation was deep inside Pakistan. The obvious reason was a confirmation of the view current in security circles the world over that they did not trust the Pakistanis with this sensitive strategic information. The Americans quoted several instances when information about terrorist hide-outs was shared with Pakistan, and the ISI forthwith warned them about imminent US strikes. It left a deep scar on the Pakistani psyche, and both the government and the army proteste