Pakistan can ignore US warning at its own risk
Pakistan ought to hear it loud and clear. Its hidden agenda to extract more aid from the United States and manipulate American support for its stated position on Kashmir under the threat of siding with Russia and China, will not work anymore. One of the highest-ranking officers in the US Treasury Department Adam Szubin, who foresees terror financing issues, has made it amply clear to the Pakistani military and civilian establishment that they must act now to destroy terror networks, or else the United States will do the necessary work for them. Szubin has said, “There are forces within the Pakistan Government specifically in the ISI that refuse to take steps against all the terror groups active in Pakistan.” Szubin's remarks come on the sideline of what can be considered as the beginning of a new chapter US-Pakistan relations that Islamabad will not cherish.
There are hardly any instances in the recent past where the United States has explicitly mentioned that, if the Pakistanis do not act on terror, the United States of America would. Observers of the region have long known that Pakistani's intelligence agencies and provincial Governments finance terrorist organisations, abet terror masterminds and perpetuate terror networks that have made normalcy of life in the most parts of Pakistan odd and often supercilious. Pakistani military and the civilian government must realise that there is no good or bad terrorist when democracy and constitutional norms are in place for reprisal. A victory at the ballot box is superior to violent mayhem that has unfortunately become the hallmark of the Pakistani way of doing things. And this time it is not India that has stated the obvious, but Pakistan's long-time ally, that has also become disgruntled at the non-compliant attitude of Pakistani leaders.
Terror in the region must come to an end. Pakistan must make a beginning, and if it does not heed the warning issued by the official of the US Treasury Department it will be doing so at its peril. The official has stated, “There should be no doubt that while we remain committed to working with Pakistan to confront ongoing terrorist financing and operations, the US will not hesitate to act alone, when necessary, to disrupt and destroy these networks'. It is said that truth is often expressed in metaphors, well this time it is for Pakistan to take the stated truth on terrorism at face value or simply rest content with its old ways. If it is the latter than the United States will do the needful. With the new President in the United States in a few months time, the US's position is expected to become militarily more astute. Thus, the warning may easily become translatable into military action against anti-India terror groups such as lashkar-e-Tayyeba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, since these are ones that are being patronised by the Pakistan Army and the ISI. The Clinton doctrine will be undoubtedly different than the Obama doctrine. Every nation has to make a choice. This is Pakistan's time.