THE CAMBODIAZATION OF PAKISTAN ROLLS ON--AS ARABS IN THE MIDDLE EAST CONTINUES TO RIDICULE U.S. ATTITUDE ON DEMOCRACY

THE CAMBODIAZATION OF PAKISTAN ROLLS ON--AS ARABS IN THE MIDDLE EAST CONTINUES TO RIDICULE U.S. ATTITUDE ON DEMOCRACY


By Kevin A. Stoda

Just after President Bush’s envoy John Negroponte left his five-hour talk with General Pervaiz Musharrif this weekend, newspapers in the region were rife with new information provided by U.S. officials that the U.S. is increasing the number of American military advisors in the regions of Pakistan, where fighting is heaviest among Musharrif’s forces, local tribesman, Al-Quaeda, Al-Quaeda allies, the Taliban on the border with Afghanistan.

It has simultaneously been emphasized in this and other reports that the United States has certainly also been increasingly aiding Pakistan in protecting its nuclear arms industry increasingly in the years since 9-11.

This was all being revealed as many person were killed in battles amongst Shiite and Sunni Muslims in the northwest part of Pakistan.

Finally, a few days later, once again Musharrif’s military and security arrested hundreds of protesting journalists.

Negroponte, who had led America’s effort to promote unpopular governments in Central America in the 1980s, had been sent by the White House ostensibly to tell Musharrif to retire from the military and to end the state of siege in his country in order to hold fair national elections in January. However, Negroponte left the Mussharrif meeting without even slapping the wrist of the Pakistani strongman, who had seized power illegally in 2000.


CAMBODIAN SHADOW OVER U.S. TROOP INCREASE IN PAKISTAN

Supposedly the CIA and American national security agencies have had a stronger presence in Pakistan in recent years than has the U.S. military.

This is partially because the local Pakistani populace generally sees heavy U.S. military presence there as a quasi-American-colonialization of the Pakistani status quo.

So, in the years after 2001, when the allies or the USA had already entered Afghanistan via Pakistan and other neighboring states, the U.S. military presence had been decreased greatly. Currently, there are reported to be only about 50 U.S. military personnel in the country.

International Herald Tribune reporter, Carlotta Gall, writes, “Altogether, the broader strategy is being accelerated because of concern about the instability in Pakistan and the weakness of the Musharraf government, as well as fears of extremist with safe havens in the tribal areas could escalate their attacks on allied troops in Afghanistan.”

It is also noteworthy that the U.S. has already sent about 11 billion dollars to Pakistan since 9-11 to help in the so-called war against terror. However, Pakistan military under strongman Musharrif to date has had little success.

As the war on terror is appearing more and more to be the George W. Bush administration’s version of the Vietnam War, one is tempted to say that the increase in U.S. activity parallels the U.S. in the Vietnam-era in Cambodia and Laos. At that time, in the 1960s and 1970s, in order to increase pressure on Northern Vietnamese forces using the so-called Ho Chi Minh trail, the United States focused on neighboring countries.

The “Cambodiazation” of the Vietnam was the last big expansion of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia in the 1970s.

Therefore, it is responsible to begin wondering whether the expansion of the war in Pakistan will bode equally adversely on South Asia. In short, the Khmer Rouge took over in Cambodia a few years after the U.S. began to depart Southeast Asia. As well, Laos fell to communist forces that were supported by the North Vietnamese and other communist states.

Ultimately, the “Cambodiazation” of the Vietnam War and the expansion of bombing in Laos eventually led to the greatest American backlash against America’s longest war. That is, the public began to be extremely vocal in demand that the U.S. presence in the Vietnam War and regional civil wars be brought to an end.

In short, after the Nixon administration’s expansion of the war into Cambodia, the middle class and mainstream America began marching on Washington and started speaking out in large numbers against the war, i.e. in numbers too large to be ignored . Within three years the U.S. military had begun its exit from Southeast Asia.

ARAB VIEW ON U.S. ROLE AS PROMOTER OF DEMOCRACY

Negroponte’s failure to stand strongly with democratic forces in Pakistan during and after his meeting with President-General Musharrif this past weekend has further disgruntled Arabs in the Middle East who are already disappointed by the U.S. administration’s continued support of strongmen, who controlling governments and limiting democracy in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Israel/Palestine in recent years.

The general perception of Arab people in the street to generals in the military—and throughout the region from Kuwait to northern Africa--is that the American promotion of democracy is a fairly negotiable article for American foreign policy leadership.


NOTES

Schnitt, Eric, Mazzetti, Mark, & Gall, Carlotta, “U.S. may increase role in Pakistan: Strategy envisions enlisting tribal chiefs in fight against Al Quaeda and Taliban”, International Herald-Tribune, 19 November 2007, p.1, 8.

Sanger, David E. “U.S. aiding Pakistan on nuclear security: Clandestine effort protects arsenal, but instability threatens fuels worries”, International Herald-Tribune, 19 November 2007, p. 8.

“Sectarian violence kills 91 in Pakistan”, International Herald-Tribune, 19 November 2007, p. 8.