Opinion

America and Pakistan in Odd Relationship
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA

The sorrows of empire are the inescapable consequences of the national policies

…Militarism and imperialism always bring with them sorrows. The symbol of the Christian religion, the cross, is perhaps the world’s most famous reminder of the sorrows that accompanied the Roman Empire—it represents the most atrocious death the Roman proconsuls could devise in order to keep subordinate peoples in line. From Cato to Cicero, the slogan of Roman leaders was ‘Let them hate us so long as they fear us.’

- Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson.

There is nothing to worry about the newly estranged relationship between Pakistan and America. Most married couples in Pakistan and the Indian sub-continent live like that. And they are happy to be so. Most women love that husband who is dominant, is reserved, is occasionally ruthless even, but is good at earning. Children being the fruit of conjugal love are a proof of the fact that the apparently estranged relationship between such a couple is nothing but a veneer, or just a pose of a durable married life. Such marriages historically have endured more than the ones based on “pure love”. True, this kind of relationship can never be termed as ideal, or even proper, but unfortunately, that is the way it is; and often it is deliberately kept so.

There is a great streak of optimism still present in the so-called spoiled or tense relationship between Pakistan and America. The Americans need to understand that 80% Urdu literature, taught or read in Pakistan, consists of the Romantic poetry, in which it is always love-consummation that is missing most. The main feeding material of this genre invariably consists of tension, sadness, frustration as a result of jilting, yearning for a glimpse of the lover, protest against life as a whole, and the desire to burn the whole world, loss of appetite as well as of ability to see that life is still beautiful. Everything gets settled once the lover gratifies the seeker with a burning soul with even a contrived smile. As simple as that. America should not worry much about Pakistan’s present pose of “frustration and rampant anger” with her. To be honest, it is a healthy sign. As in Urdu literature, so in life there, lovers feel better and relationships tremendously improve after such a heart-felt bout. Maulana Rumi puts it rather more nicely in an anecdote titled “Two lovers and the love letter”.

‘A certain man, when his beloved allowed him to sit beside her, produced a love letter and began reading it. The letter carried verses of praise, of glory, of lamentations, of the wretchedness of separation and many a humble entreaty. The beloved heard a part of the letter and said, “If you’re reading this for me at this time while we sit together, then you’re wasting my life. I’m here beside you and you reading a letter! It doesn’t seem to me to be quite the way lovers should behave.” To this the man replied, “You’re beside me, but I don’t feel that I am really getting closer to you. Last year I felt something different, which I don’t feel now, though I am still close to you … ‘in you I still see the fountain, but now no water flows, stolen by a thief.’ The beloved replied, ‘Then I am not your beloved, for I am somewhere else. And the object of your desire departed… true love is the treasure, not the walls about it. Do not admire the decoration, but involve yourself in the essence.”

The scribe of this article has reached a ripe age of seventy watching this peculiar love-hate game between Pakistan and the USA. Every young man in Pakistan aspires to go to America, but every one of them ‘hates’ America too! Why so? Is this hatred momentary, or is it of a lasting nature? In my opinion, it is another form of love too, because according to Charles Lamb, love and hatred are two sides of the same coin. In either kind the object is never absent from the mind, and the attraction - positive or negative - is equally intense.

The real problem between Pakistan and America is the lack of trust, sincerity and a clear manifestation of fidelity. There had been no dearth of meetings, open or closed, no shortage of hugging and smooching at any level, and yet we keep hearing one party saying, “I don’t feel that I am really getting closer to you”. In the words of Mr. Saleem Saifi, a journalist, as he put it in one of his columns, ‘Pak-American tensions…’, “The truth of the matter is that neither America is the “Dildar’, (the beloved), nor Pakistan is the “Wafadar”, (the loyal one)”. The result is obvious. People in both the countries have suffered tremendously, and Pakistan perhaps in the worst way. It is no more the country it used to be, nor are there signs that it will ever be so. The real aim after the tragedy of 9/11 should have been to end terrorism. Allied vested interests and after thoughts gave the issue an entirely new shape.

Once terrorism sat in the caves of Tora Bora in Afghanistan, now it is in every nook and corner of both the countries, namely, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The country - Afghanistan - that harbored the terrorists, and that got bombarded by the Americans, is now much closer to them than the country that from its inception in 1947 had been with America, namely, Pakistan. Now Pakistan hears statements like ‘Conditions in Afghanistan cannot improve unless they improve in its immediate neighbor, namely Pakistan.’ In Pakistan such statements would be interpreted as ‘conditions in Mexico cannot improve unless they improve in the United States of America’. Pakistan is a real country, the rest are, at best, just in the making. Relationships that are not based on real understanding of each other, on truth, reality, sincerity and trust, often produce the kind of results in which the world is embroiled, be it life or politics

America is big and is by and largeand by nature benevolent also. Pakistan in the comity of the 57 Muslim countries is the only State country, a real, solid country: it has the best trained army; is an established nuclear power, its people love true democracy though they often have been kept away from it for no fault of their own; they yearn for a just and honest judiciary; they honor women participation in every walk of life, and have had one as prime minister twice, (even now Pakistan has a woman speaker, and a woman foreign minister), they love education, and they speak and understand English better than most developing countries, and they by nature, religion and culture are opposed to extremism. No people on earth are more resilient, more hardworking and more enterprising than the people of Pakistan. A mini Morris of the 1964 or 1967 make can still be spotted on roads serving as a taxi with every part home-made. Had America invested in the people of Pakistan and not in the power-hungry and corrupt politicians, or dictators for its own convenience, circumstances today would have been entirely different.

Given a chance, Pakistan’s sons like Ziad Haider would earn a fellowship for the year 2011-2012, and work even in the White House. It would be a real tragedy if due to further misjudgment, miscalculation or due to misinformation or personal bias, Pakistan in the American perception yet continues to emerge as an untrustworthy and unreliable partner and ally. If consistency and length of duration is a criterion for judging the sincerity and validity of a relationship, then no one should be able to contest or beat Pakistan on these two scores. America’s new bed-fellows, (India and Afghanistan) and Pakistan’s immediate neighbors are known for their jilting roles, and for belonging to a hostile communism bloc in the past. Till yesterday, they sat in Russia’s lap. It may have been easy for America to forget the past role of these countries, but for Pakistan it may not be so as it fought three wars with India, whatever the reason.

It is true, Pakistan must also follow a policy of reconciliation and of good relationship based on mutual respect and understanding, with its neighbors and should not stay mired in the old hostilities, nor should it keep on dreaming of making Kabul as its fifth province. It already has enough trouble on its own platter. Afghan people, notwithstanding all their tribal rivalries and ethnicities, are fiercely independent, a quality that should be recognized and honored. At the same time, it is mandatory for the Kabul establishment to understand Pakistan’s concerns with regard to India. Once the new realities begin to dawn upon the Kabul government after the withdrawal of the Americans from Afghanistan, Pakistan might once again figure out as their sole haven if they once again doom themselves to wage a second civil war. America should also understand that as a sole Super Power of the world, it should play the role of a just referee in bringing about a real and workable understanding between these three countries, so that they may live in peace and prosperity by mutually benefiting from each other’s resources in all walks of life. Playing one against the other in the peculiar atmosphere of these immediate neighbors would be detrimental to the regional and world peace.

Understanding, thus, of each other’s culture, mindset, true nature, and national interests, and regional and geographic realities are of paramount importance if relationship between Pakistan and America, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and India and Pakistan are to improve. For Pakistan, playing politics on the basis of American hatred is not a smart move. Like it is not, Pakistan’s own adversary number one, India, is hand in glove with America. The Germans, Japanese, Vietnamese, and even the Middle-Eastern countries, especially Egypt, even Iraq till 1967 war who were in the Russian loop, finally felt constrained to come and join the America bloc. All these countries, at some juncture of history, have had to bear the brunt of America’s bluntness and ruthlessness. Today they are America’s close allies. Why is Pakistan trying to ride an opposing tide? Mark Twain was right what he said about America, “America is like the weather. Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anybody about it.” So understanding America in a real sense is essential for the people of Pakistan. Same way, it is incumbent for the American government and people to understand the people of Pakistan, their mindset, their culture, their religion, and above all, their raw nerves that if scratched constantly, are likely to turn them lose their sense of propriety and sanity.

First- America. Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball, and anchor of “Chris Matthews Show, and New York Times, counts TEN Grand American Notions in his interesting book, “American; Beyond Our Grandest Notions” that characterize America and its people. In the current atmosphere of distrust and misunderstanding it is vital for the people of Pakistan and America to know the strength of each country.

According to Chris Matthews, America is a country:

Made Country: that was created out of ideas and ideals. Its people are fiercely independent and are in love with freedom. It is a place where one can try to be what one wants to be. They love to re-invent themselves.
A Rebel Country: American people are suspicious of power and are in love with freedom. In the battle between the individual and the government, people know where they stand.
A Reluctant Warrior: American generals don’t wear epaulets and American officers don’t strut. Once attacked or threatened, Americans strike back fiercely.
Tested in Action: Americans trust the person who’s been tested by fire and comes back tougher: Washington and his men outnumbered on the battlefield, Theodore Roosevelt in Cuba and the young Hemingway, the great American writer, driving an ambulance, and shot in World War I, and later running with the bulls in Spain and hunting big game in East Africa.
Common Man: Americans hold dear the notion that the regular guy, whether a Minuteman fighting the Redcoats or Harry Truman taking on Stalin, can rise to the occasion, and can rise even to the country’s highest office, if they have the right stuff. Three of the most legendary presidents, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and Harry Truman had practically no formal schooling. They were common men of uncommon ability and that is what counts.
Root for the Underdog: America is a superpower, yet Americans can’t give up their romance with the guy who is not supposed to win. David is still being cheered for fighting Goliath. Rocky Balboa is still loved for going the distance against the champ; Oprah Winfrey is a media colossus; Rocky was admired because he was unwilling to stay down, and so was Shane as he stood against aggression carried out by the cattle-raisers in Jackson-hole.
The Lone Hero: From Hawkeye to Shane to Ethan Edwards and Travis Bickel, American heroes are misfits who save the day. This is America’s role as well. Though America is dismissed by the arrogant nations of Europe as crude and callow, yet it was America that arrived to save the day in two world wars, to save Poland, to liberate France and to purge Germany and as later it did in Bosnia and Kosovo.
Not abandoning its Pioneer Past: American frontier may be gone but its spirit lives on. From Daniel Boone in the Kentucky wilderness to Charles Lindbergh soaring high and alone above the choppy Atlantic to John F. Kennedy and his daring call to shoot for the moon, Americans do not want to get anywhere second.
Unabashed Optimism: Americans have great confidence in their future. Even in the darkest times-battling a huge economic crisis at home or military foes overseas-Franklin Roosevelt understood the thirst the American people have for optimism. “This great nation will endure as it has endured,… will revive and will prosper”. Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan had one big quality in common. Never quite.
Finally: American Exceptionalism: Americans see themselves endowed with a special destiny. From the earliest days, Americans see their country as a ‘city upon a hill’, a role model for all the world. Thomas Paine saw the American Revolution as a break not just with Europe but with the past. ‘We have it in our power to begin the world all over”, he wrote. (Continued next week)

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