Kashmir Watch, Nov 7
The US involvement in South Asia is not a new phenomenon: for instance in Kashmir liberation struggle a US national from Brooklyn Mr Russel K Haight has been training/guiding the Kashmir liberators in Baramullah in the 1947-48 Kashmir struggle, writes Hameed Shaheen
The chief global quantum of sub-soil wealth like oil, ore, precious minerals lies buried under the Asian mountain ranges and the plains, an inevitable invitation to the outside industrial powers. The historians, two centuries ago, had given this wealth attraction the name of Great Game. It was first the famous writer, and Editor of Civil and Military Gazette Lahore Mr Rudyard Kipling giving that ominous name – the Great Game in nineteenth century. Since then the game goes on with, however, change of core aspects from period to period. But the central push remains the same. From Caspian Sea oil, central Asian gas-gold and its outer pipe passage make the bowel of central Asia, mountains of Afghanistan and rough tracks of Baluchistan as life-artery towards Arabian sea. This is a naked fact; but its mention in diplomatic parlance varies from capital to capital;
The other geo-physical fact is that Asian continent today is dotted with several territorial and policy conflicts. Asia is home to four nuclear powers. And existence of territorial disputes, Kashmir hanging fire among them all, is pregnant with explosive potential. It is this disputes-festering milieu that US has rolled her role as a global wrestler in a wrestling ring surrounded by four-nuke states. The US seems fully conscious of this sensitivity. That is the reason that she has pre-empted Indian nuke friendship, almost giving India her own equal status in international affairs. But at the same time this side of Washington’s policy endangers other community of nations in South Asia. It is generally accepted that wrestling is the choicest national game, and gimmick also, in USA. That physical instinct, therefore, is bound to ventilate itself in almost all corners of her global vision and life. May or may not be so, but that impression is alive everywhere. And Vietnam conduct is quoted as supporting instance.
The US involvement in South Asia is not a new phenomenon: for instance in Kashmir liberation struggle a US national from Brooklyn Mr Russel K Haight has been training/guiding the Kashmir liberators in Baramullah in the 1947-48 Kashmir struggle. Many historians have now acknowledged it as a fact in their researches including by famous critical scholar Aisha Jalal. Mr Haight was later decorated with the stars of Brigadier General by the Revolutionary Government founded in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on October 4, 1947, later reconstituted on October 24, 1947 with young dynamic barrister Sardar M Ibrahim Khan as first president. Mr Haight is originally described as an engineer engaged in Afghanistan construction works then when the Kashmir struggle sparked off in 1947. He shifted from Afghanistan to Kashmir and donned the role of a trainer and trained liberation groups. This is what historians acknowledge.
We can say with confidence on the basis of this evidence that the USA’s involvement in Kashmir struggle takes effect from its inceptive phases. This is no grudge. It is also mentioned in some research dossiers on World War-II that about 2,50,000 US soldiers were present in one way or the other in the pre-1947 sub-continent when the war was raging at the gates of Burma, flaming fast towards India. Therefore the US links with this landmass goes older. However its contours changed in every phase of history as we see it today. At one time Pakistan plays a profoundly crucial role when she (Pakistan) diligently cobbled Sino-US diplomatic ties. Prior to that historic contribution, Pakistan stood steadfastly as an ally in SEATO and CENTO. Taking presence of Pakistan in SEATO, CENTO, India turned more arrogant on Kashmir, but Washington failed to erase the crust of Indian intransigence on that vital issue. Again the pivotal role of Islamabad since December 1979 in this region is writ large across the pages of global history, but its ‘reward’ in regional terms is missing like an ungrateful friend ditching consciously the worth and value of friendship brazen-facedly.
In her recent visit to Pakistan the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her public speeches in a way acknowledged that blindness of US foreign policy and posture. That admission is really great on her part to see and accept such policy loopholes. That shows her perceptiveness and innovation. But the admission is not enough; a global power has had to take global morality to rectify the wrongs done with a care and candidness. The universal definitive impression among our youth is that despite being a global friend, the USA has not taken any concrete push forward to cure the only running sore that affects Pakistan’s economic and diplomatic health. Kashmir remains unsolved; with the passage of time apart from this core dispute, its ramifications are also hurting the region, its peoples and ditching peace in South Asia. The most disturbing facet of this dispute is the fact that despite UN verdict, accepted both by the disputants - Pakistan and India - and the international community no tangible move seems on ground for past over six decades for its resolution.
This peculiarity of the situation defies the claims of ‘friendship’. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Kashmir focus of Washington seems not tied to its global policy matrix; that view affects adversely the diplomatic initiatives of Pakistan as US friend. From all calculations, the range of Washington’s revised interests in South Asia is covers more on cut-throat economic competitiveness; obviously around this newest paradigm the bigger population size counts much in her eyes. South Asia has become now a hotbed of commercial corridor contest among the outside powers, promoters of Great Game, vying to check the growth of one and to overtake the other. In this situation again the sufferer is Pakistan’s vital causes and interests. Yet again the Pakistan-US friendship paradigm comes under scathing criticism. Only the US can revert the perception by relieving Islamabad of its long-outstanding dire dispute Kashmir, the first. Washington needs to upgrade her image in the eyes of people in this Kashmir dispute-affected region. East Timor stands a glaring contrast, a photo view US policy planners must not miss at all.
Author can be rached at: abdulhameedshaheen@yahoo.com
Posted on 07 Nov 2009 by
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