The President will benefit from briefing (coaching) on strategy and diplomacy!

The President continues to speak rather offhandedly on strategic matters, leaving others to pick up the pieces! The President has been talking again! And why shouldn't he, you might ask? Well, he has been persisting in talking quite offhandedly on matters of strategic importance to the country, with the national interest apparently taking a back - way, way back - seat.
That is why! In an interview the President gave to Lally Weymouth of Newsweek of USA (which was printed by the well-known weekly in its 22 December 08 issue), the President has dilated on ISI, on terrorism, on nuclear arms and on Pakistani policies, past and present.
Some of the questions and answers, as reported, are reproduced below with Spotlight comments following. We sincerely feel that the President could benefit from briefing on matters of strategy and diplomacy, by the likes, for example, of Tariq Fatimi, Akram Zaki and ISI experts. The country would be saved from a lot of unnecessary embarrassment and harm if he were to prove a good learner.
NEWSWEEK: It has been reported that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and that it shared intelligence with LeT on Kashmir. Do you believe that to be true?
PRESIDENT: We are talking about an age-old situation. This is something (that happened) in the old days when dictators used to run the country. Maybe before 9/11 that may have been the position. (But) since then, things have changed to a great extent.
SPOTLIGHT: This amounts to an admission by implication or inference that ISI was involved in unsavoury activity. The President fails to take the opportunity to highlight the fact of Indian occupation of a big part of Kashmir through brutal use of 700,000 troops which has resulted in killing, over a period of 60 years now, of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Kashmiris struggling for the right of self-determination granted to them by the United Nations.
NEWSWEEK: The problem is that long before you came to office, Lashkar-e-Taiba was used in Kashmir by the Pakistani Army to fight India.
PRESIDENT: That may have been the situation then, but things have changed. Lashkar-e-Taiba has been banned. Of course, these nonstate actors keep re-emerging in different forms. Whenever there is actionable intelligence, we move in before anyone else does.
SPOTLIGHT: President Zardari's constant refrain of "non state actors" amounts again to an admission by inference that Pakistan is crawling with such people. No wonder accusing fingers continue to be pointed at Pakistan for harbouring terrorists whereas the just Kashmiri struggle against illegal occupation of a large part of their territory appears to remain out of international focus, thus allowing India to continue its illegal occupation and atrocities on over 10 million Kashmiris while being successful in focusing world attention on unsubstantiated accusations against Pakistan instead!
NEWSWEEK: Allegedly, Rice asked you to arrest a former ISI chief, General Hamid Gul. There have been stories that Gul is tied up with the Taliban and al Qaeda. I remember Benazir talking about how bad Gul was.
PRESIDENT: Hamid Gul is an actor who is definitely not in our good books. Hamid Gul is somebody who was never appreciated by our government. She (Rice) did not go into specifics, if I may share that with you ....He has not been accused in the Mumbai incident.... I think he is more of a political ideologue of terror than a physical supporter.
SPOTLIGHT: The President does not appear to realise that this statement appears to bring a bad name to an organisation vital to the security of the country. It is hard to find another example in the whole world of a head of the state maligning an organisation vital to its internal security. This thoughtless statement can lead to further serious finger pointing against ISI. Can you imagine the Indian President talking in this manner against a RAW ex-chief?
NEWSWEEK: The Indians are asking you to send them people to bring to justice, right?
PRESIDENT: (We) don't have that kind of relationship yet. America and Pakistan have hardly gotten to the position where we can interact and exchange information.
SPOTLIGHT: Did the President realise that he appears to be giving up the oft stated position that under no circumstances would we agree to send any Pakistani accused to be tried abroad.
NEWSWEEK: So you will not send anyone to India?
PRESIDENT: No, that is a decision to be made by the Parliament and not by the president.
SPOTLIGHT: Again the President fails to firmly state the official position on the issue and appears to imply that the Parliament could agree to the humiliating proposition if it so chooses.
NEWSWEEK: So if you say there will be no first strike against India - as you did - will the army listen to you?
PRESIDENT: Of course. It goes without saying.
SPOTLIGHT: This reiteration is as damaging to the national interest as it is bizarre. The President appears to be persisting in the faux pas he committed some weeks back when talking to Indian media, eschewing first use of nuclear weapons in case of war against India, thus earning the doubtful distinction of being the only nuclear country in the world to renounce first use. It is as if all the efforts exerted by past leaders and scientists of Pakistan and all the sacrifices the country made in attaining nuclear capability against heavy odds, were in vain. One is amazed that President Zardari appears to have still not understood the deterrent hypothesis and value of nuclear arms ownership!
NEWSWEEK: US Intelligence reportedly has evidence of ISI's involvement in the (July) bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul. Is it true?
PRESIDENT: No we have not had that intimation from the Americans. I totally deny that. We had nothing to do with the Kabul bombing. Again these are non state actors.
SPOTLIGHT: Mention of non state actors appears to come as knee jerk reaction to the president. The implications of this response appear to be totally lost on him.
NEWSWEEK: Over and over before, Pakistani leaders said they would do something about Lashkar and never did.
PRESIDENT: That is not us.
SPOTLIGHT: This is quite in line with the classic Musharraf response when he was President and appears to say: I am the good guy among a whole lot of bad Pakistanis. ([email protected])