'Pompeo in Pakistan'

This is apropos a Business Recorder editorial "Pompeo in Pakistan" carried by the newspaper on Friday. The newspaper has argued, among other things, that "the appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad, a former US ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq, as a special envoy to Afghanistan may still be viewed with doubt and suspicion by Pakistan. But there is no denying that Khalilzad has better appreciation of the Afghan situation than the rest in the US State Department, including Secretary of State Pompeo. He will, therefore, be required to act with utmost sincerity to settle the simmering Afghan conundrum. But his mission shall remain unaccomplished until and unless he whole-heartedly and overtly identifies the impediments to the resolution of the Afghan issue. Asking New Delhi to stop waging a proxy war against Pakistan from the Afghan soil would lead to the removal of one such hurdle to peace in Afghanistan." That Khalilzad has better understanding of Afghanistan is a fact as he had been involved with US policymakers in the State Department and the Pentagon since the mid 1980s. Moreover, he was the highest-ranking Muslim American in the George W. Bush's administration. But his role was quite different from the late John Hopkins professor Fouad A Ajami's. Khalilzad had planned the US attack of Afghanistan. Little did he however know that the US would ultimately be turned out to be a loser in this landlocked country. He will therefore be required to learn from the mistakes that he has already made.