Critical Triangle continues...

By this time the mood in Washington had turned against Pakistan. President Obama told Tom Donilon that he saw the “cancer” of terrorism as being in Pakistan, to ensure it did not spread to Afghanistan and ultimately the need to excise it from Pakistan itself. He went on to remark that no amount of troop surges would work in Afghanistan as long as Pakistan remained a safe haven for terrorists. Biden similarly described Pakistan as the “greater danger.” Despite this the troop surge went ahead hand-in-hand with efforts to compel Pakistan, but this time with implicit threats.

Following the failed plot to bomb New York’s Times Square on 1 May 2010, NSA Jones returned to Pakistan with a simple message. If a terrorist attack on US soil were to succeed and were to be traced to Pakistan “no one will be able to stop the response and consequences.” He presented four specific demands: greater intelligence sharing, sharing of flight passenger manifests, enhanced counter-terrorism cooperation and speeding up visas for US intelligence agents. All four requests were denied or circumvented within week.

During the bilateral strategic talks in Washington in October 2010, President Obama warned that Pakistan and the US were heading on a “collision course.” To prove his point Obama visited India in November 2010 and skipped Pakistan. Later in December during a meeting with President Zardari in Washington, Obama had seemingly “switched off.”

On 1 May 2011, US Special Forces conducted the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In his initial speech announcing the success of the raid, President Obama had mentioned Pakistan in a positive light, in spite of pent up tension.

The initial statement of Pakistan welcomed the elimination of major terrorist and claimed that this showed the world Pakistan’s resolve to fight terrorism

To be continued..