US' changing goals

Speaking at a press conference in Islamabad, US' special envoy for Af-Pak Richard Holbrooke held out the assurance that his country will "not leave Pakistan alone", and that it would help Pakistan steer through the prevailing security situation. No doubt, the US will try to help Pakistan as long as the security situation is not resolved in a manner that it finds satisfactory.
But if he was talking within the context of a longer term relationship, the truth of the matter is that he himself is not really in a position to guarantee that the US will not leave Pakistan alone to deal with the aftermath of this war, like it did at the end of its last (proxy) war in Afghanistan.
The reason has to do with America's own goals, which keep changing with the change in administration as well as public opinion. In the case of Afghanistan, for instance, the Bush administration had set for itself the ambitious goal of building the country's infrastructure and economy and putting in place a democratic set-up.
That, of course, was when Washington thought victory was within its reach. But as the war dragged on, and the financial cost and military casualties started to mount, the American people lost patience with it. The recent global economic crisis made it even more difficult for the Obama administration to wage an open-ended war to find a permanent foothold in the country.
The result is that President Obama's recently announced new Afghan strategy changed the goal from nation-building to finding a face-saving exit. The US is now interested only in removing the threat al Qaeda poses to its security, and leaving Afghanistan as soon as that objective is achieved.
President Obama acknowledged in his Afghan policy speech that his administration does not want Afghanistan to distract it from pressing domestic issues, which include the economy, healthcare and education. Although, the US economy has improved, the conditions for a sustained recovery, led by private demand, are not yet fully established.
According to World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick, one of the legacies of the global financial crisis may be a recognition of changed economic power relations and a multi-polar economy less reliant on the US consumer will be a more stable economy. The reality is that the US is a declining power, which fact is to find reflection, slowly but surely, in the country's policy towards the outside world.
So far as the present situation is concerned, Pakistan and the US have a mutuality of interest to defeat extremism. Towards that end, the US must fulfil its outstanding commitments regarding different development and military assistance programmes and proposals. But Pakistan must also try and shake off the dependency syndrome.
Instead of worrying about the possibility of the US leaving it 'alone' in the lurch, Pakistan must work towards standing on its own feet. Washington will help it only as long as its self-interest so requires. If and when it decides to depart, Islamabad should not complain. Neither should Washington, in case Pakistan decides to chart its own independent course, in line with its own interests. But for that to happen, Islamabad must first learn to value independent policymaking.