They’ve had four opportunities and that’s what they have done

‘America must rework its relationship with Pakistan’

Bruce Riedel: In conversation with Aziz Haniffa, the former CIA stalwart discusses the US AfPak India conundrum. Since its release last month, Central Intelligence Agency veteran and senior adviser to four Presidents on Middle East and South Asian issues Bruce Riedel’s new book, canada goose clearance sale Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America and the Future of Global Jihad, has been creating waves in administration, Congressional, think tank and diplomatic circles.

canada goose black friday sale You mentioned that it was Strobe (Talbott, deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration and now president, The Brookings Institution) who had suggested the title of your book. canada goose black friday sale

I thought Strobe’s idea for the title captured canadian goose jacket beautifully in two words the complexity of this relationship, the contradictions in this relationship, and above all, how this relationship has been poisoned for America and for Pakistan. So, Deadly Embrace seemed to me to be a beautiful title.

Are you advocating the US get out of this deadly embrace? Is it possible?

canada goose store We need to transform our relationship with Pakistan to a positive embrace, where we are working to help build Pakistani democracy, help those forces in Pakistan who want to resist jihadism and the dark forces, keep the Pakistani army in the barracks and help Pakistan normalise its relationships with cheap Canada Goose Afghanistan, and, above all, with India. canada goose store

Canada Goose Jackets The big idea for America in the 21st century in South Asia has to be to build a South Asia which puts war and terror behind it and puts trade and transit in front of it. Canada Goose Jackets

There’s the story of someone getting hold of the tiger’s tale and the tiger taking off so fast that you can’t canada goose let go of it even if you want to. Is that the case with Pakistan as far as the US is concerned? A deadly embrace that Washington cannot simply extricate itself out of even if it wants to?

cheap canada goose uk It’s certainly been the case for many, many years. For good reasons and bad canada goose coats reasons, America has pursued a highly schizophrenic policy towards Pakistan. What we need now is constancy and consistency, support for the democratically elected leadership of Pakistan, with all their warts. Because we’ve tried the buy canada goose jacket cheap generals and that’s how we got into the mess we’re in. So, we have to help Pakistan help itself. cheap canada goose uk

canada goose uk outlet There are some people in this town, looking at the unraveling situation in Pakistan and reminiscing nostalgically about the good old days of the Pakistani generals when things seemed less complicated and there were fewer people to essentially deal with. Can’t it be argued that this offered perhaps a more pragmatic strategic scenario, even if it were totally contrary to America’s democratic values? canada goose uk outlet

The generals are the reason we are in the mess we are in today. Each Pakistani military dictator, above all Zia ul Haq, but all four of them, have steadily moved the country towards a more radical outlook. They have harbored Islamic extremists, they have played Russian roulette and plotted war after war with India that’s how we got into this mess.

canada goose We know what Pakistani generals can do. We know that they will produce a Pakistan that is not healthy. They’ve had four opportunities and that’s what they have done. One of the tragedies in Pakistan is that the armies can’t run the country, but they won’t let anyone else run the country. We shouldn’t slip into that mistake again. canada goose

canadian goose jacket The good old days of the generals were not good old days. It was they who produced the global Islamic jihad. canadian goose jacket

Canada Goose online It’s become almost a clich now that Pakistan is the epicenter of terrorism. You in fact coined the phrase ‘syndicate of terror’. Is there any possibility of it letting up, or is it going to exacerbate even further because it’s a Frankenstein’s monster that’s gripped Pakistan by its jugular to the extent that this genie cannot be put back into the bottle anymore? Canada Goose online

Canada Goose Outlet The battle for the soul of Pakistan is underway between the dark forces, the syndicate of terror and their allies in the Pakistani establishment. And those who still believe in Muhammad Jinnah’s vision of a Pakistan, buy canada goose jacket which is a moderate, modern democracy in which anyone could practice their faith. Canada Goose Outlet

Canada Goose Online The outcome of that battle is crucial to the globe in the 21st www.jacketstockk.com century. It’s easy to be pessimistic and to assume canada goose clearance that the dark forces will win. Canada Goose Online

I am an eternal optimist because the Pakistani people have fought back against dictatorships time and time again and brave Pakistani like (former Pakistani prime minister) Benazir Bhutto, with all her faults, like the governor of Punjab (Salman Taseer, assassinated for his liberal views by his fanatical Islamic bodyguard), with all his faults, are the kind of people we need to support.

You were the chair of President Obama’s initial Af Pak Strategic Report. Did you consider it a deadly embrace then? I certainly from well before that have been saying and writing that Pakistan is the epicenter of international terrorism, that the syndicate of terror was a threat to the survival of Pakistan.

uk canada goose If my contribution to the President’s first (Af Pak) review focused on anything, it was more to understand the nature of the Pakistani challenge and the imperative of changing US Pakistan relations than any other canada goose deals single issue. uk canada goose

You’ve also always argued about the perfidy of the ISI and written about canada goose black friday sale how you are convinced of the ISI hand and connivance in the Mumbai terror attacks by unleashing its surrogate, the Lashkar e Tayiba

canada goose coats The evidence of an ISI role in the planning of Mumbai mounts continuously. How far up in ISI, we still don’t know. How far up in the Pakistani army, we still don’t know. But connivance in the long effort to plot that attack, which we now know about so much from (Pakistani American Lashkar operative) David Headley, I think is pretty clear. canada goose coats

canada goose clearance sale Are you canada goose store convinced that this alliance between the ISI and the Lashkar canada goose outlet Canada Goose Parka is still very much alive and well? While the ISI may have created the Lashkar, could it be that it no longer holds its reins? canada goose clearance sale

canada goose factory sale No one who’s not in the ISI today can tell you exactly what’s going on. But we have a long track record and I don’t see any reason to believe that the history of ISI’s relations with Lashkar e Tayiba and other groups like that has substantially changed. canada goose factory sale

Why is that? Is it because the Pakistani military’s concept of strategic depth vis vis India through proxy wars via groups like the Lashkar is still very much a priority?

The ISI has seen groups like Lashkar e Tayiba as assets in asymmetric warfare with India. They have seen them as useful for creating a strategic depth. They have believed that the US will cut and run in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Until we change those beliefs we are not likely to see the ISI get out of the business of being a patron sponsor of terrorism. In my book, I argue canada goose coats on sale the US now needs to Canada Goose online draw specific red lines and make clear what is totally unacceptable. And then, if we identify Pakistani intelligence officers involved in support of international terrorism, we should put their names on the list that the United Nations puts out of international terrorists and abettors of international terrorism.

Canada Goose sale We should put them on America’s lists, we should make it personal. I think that is the ‘or else’ that we’ve been missing for a long time. Canada Goose sale

Headley mentions a Major Iqbal as his handler. Do you believe that this Major Iqbal should be put on these lists by the UN and the US?

If we could find out who Major Iqbal is, absolutely he should be on the list. After all, half a dozen American citizens were murdered in Mumbai.

Pakistan, its military and the ISI still believe it’s India that is Pakistan’s primary existential threat and not terrorism. You mentioned at your book launch how (Pakistan’s chief of army staff) General (Ashfaq) Kayani proudly talks about the fact that he is the most India centric general. So, can this perception ever dissipate and India not be looked at as Pakistan’s Canada Goose sale most dire threat.