Critical Triangle continues ....

That ambivalence came crashing down with the twin towers on 11September 2001. On 12 September, Gen Mahmud Ahmed, Head of the ISI, who was in Washington was summoned to the States Department and told by Richard Armitage that “there was no manoeuvring room.”

On 13 September, the new US ambassador to Islamabad, Wendy Chamberlin, presented her credentials to President Musharraf and told him “not to urge dialogue but to act.” Shortly thereafter, Secretary of State, Colin Powell, telephoned Musharraf. Between Generals Musharraf and Mehmud, they arrived at the conclusion that the American message was that non-compliance with US demands would result in Pakistan being “bombed back to the stone age.”

Before deciding to throw their lot in with the US though, the Pakistanis first “wargamed the US as an adversary.” The noises coming from India were ominous. In his 14 September televised address Prime Minister Vajpayee had said, “We must hold governments wholly accountable for the terrorism that originates from their countries. In a word, to get at the terrorists, the world community must get at their organisations, at those who condition, finance, train, equip and protect them. To get at the organisations, it must isolate, and thus compel the states that nurture and support them, to desist from doing so.” Basically India was saying that Pakistan should be held as responsible as the Taliban for what al Qaeda had done.

This was backed up by India promptly offering the use of its military bases and logistical support to the US, well before NATO did.

To be continued....