Kabul's blame-game

That Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir has taken strong exception to the 'blame-game' against Pakistan the Karzai administration so frequently indulges in as was very much expected. "We need to end this blame-game. We need to take ownership of our affairs; this problem will not go away, if we keep on pointing fingers at each other. We have done it too long and I think it is time that our two great nations decide," he told reporters in the Afghan capital on Tuesday.
Secretary Salman Bashir's stinging comment came as a riposte to President Karzai's allegation that 427 rockets were fired from the Pakistani territory into Afghanistan during the past three weeks. Yes, there were, what the ISPR described 'a few accidental rounds' as the Pakistani forces pursued the invading militants. But the Pakistani forces had not responded by launching a planned retaliatory attack into the Afghan territory, even when the provocations were too grave.
Only during the month of June this year, the invaders from Afghanistan province of Kunar carried out at least three major cross-border incursions into the Pakistani territory, following a similar attack in Lower Dir in April, causing extensive damage to life and property. Per force Pakistani forces beat back the invading hordes, but they never entered the Afghan territory. And what an irony of the situation, the Afghan administration draws strength in this tirade from a person no other than Karl Eikenberry, US ambassador in Kabul, who has earned the reputation of a loose cannon in his comments about others. That Pakistan is rearing is 'snakes in its backyard', it is hardly the expression of a diplomat.
No doubt such comments do reflect the early contours of the end-game of war in Afghanistan that should help Islamabad readjust its position as a partner of the US-led coalition. And should there still be any misgivings about the yawning trust deficit the Pakistani leadership would be well-advised to hear what transpired before the US Senate's Armed Services Committee recently as two military commanders defended their nomination by President Obama for assignments in this region.
The two of them, Admiral William McRaven, who will head US Special Operations Command and Lieutenant General John Allen the future head of International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan, left the Senate committee in no doubt that 'Pakistanis are aware of Omar's whereabouts', and also that they are 'protecting the Haqqani network'.
We should not forget that hunting and drone-targeting Taliban in Pakistan is the duty of the force Admiral McRaven is going to lead and General Allen will command the US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan, including the bordering province of Kunar from where incursions into our territory were carried out in June.
Translated, as the Afghan war enters its end-game phase, Pakistan is being projected by the Western governments as the future battlefield in its campaign against al Qaeda - a scenario likely to acquire immense lethality should the US succeed in selling Kabul on its plan to fix six strategic bases in the post-withdrawal Afghanistan.
Coming back to cross-border incursions' allegations, it may be of some advantage to remind the Afghan and US interlocutors that the ball is in their court for it's them who have been lacking in commitment to seal the common border. Of course, it is impossible to secure the long, porous border against illegal crossings - and Kabul's failure is as much rooted in its historic claim that the border remains unsettled and is still only the McMahon Line - but no serious effort has been made by the Afghan government either.
Take the case of rising cross-border incursions in the bordering areas of Upper Dir and Mohmand Agency; with adjacent Afghan districts vacated by the Isaf last year, there is virtually nothing to discourage the Afghan militants from undertaking forays into Pakistan. Also, the Isaf and Afghan authorities have stopped work on seven of the eight agreed Border Co-ordination Centres, further limiting intelligence sharing on cross-border violations.
That being the unhelpful backdrop, not much can be realistically expected from the trilateral meetings in Kabul, a reality accentuated by President Obama's pullout roadmap which should leave no one in doubt that the wrap-up has begun. So if President Karzai is mercurial that's understandable. We too need to imbibe the spirit of change and readjust our priorities, including the nature of our commitment to be a partner of US-conceived and US-led war against international terrorism.