Taliban monster turns on its master

Again

Washington DC 27 May 2022

Pakistan Reaps What It Sowed: How the Country’s Support for the Taliban Backfired by Husain Haqqani is Director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute. He was Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States from 2008 to 2011.

A good run down here with clarity on various actors and their antics. Nuclear armed Pakistan was always the bigger prize than Afghanistan. The Taliban knew it but we ignored it, narrowly focusing on 9/11 related issues decades after 9/11. Being in Afghanistan the way we were changed all sorts of dynamics. We never seemed to evolve with the times. I have always been critical of this mis-focus and I remain unchanged in that assessment.

Two big things here:

1. The continued threat to Pakistan stability (and nuclear weapon security) by extremists. Something I have warned about in writings (and in govt) for more than a decade. But as usual in Washington we seem to have attention for just one problem at a time despite an eco-system of overlapping bureaucracies and armies of analysts charged with monitoring, reporting and recommending policies to advance our interests....

2. China's Taliban relationship will blow up in Beijing's face too. This is entirely predictable and yes, I was on that issue for a long time too and emphasized it when Kabul fell. In fact, I celebrated the PRC rushing in.... on the grounds that it was stupid for America to provide security for China's commercial activities in Afg and that China would soon learn what the Pakistanis and we learned... you can't control the crazies and they will cause major trouble in Xinjiang. The more the Taliban promise they wont do that, the more you know they are doing exactly that under the table as they shake your hand.

One day we will again support them as they infiltrate China and unbalance it from within. It will be the 1980s redux. Hard for China to throw its weight around in the CSC when its internal security - its top focus by far - is in question.

This is the thesis of my book
https://lnkd.in/ddhdhGrw

Related blog here
https://lnkd.in/dGSjEAAt

#china #taliban #defensepolicy #nationalsecurity #intelligencecommunity#pakistan