WASHINGTON: A decorated CIA veteran who called Pakistan’s bluff during the Kargil conflict a decade back and set US and India ties on a soaring new trajectory has been tasked by President Obama with conducting an inter-agency review of American policy towards Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Bruce Riedel, who has worked with three US presidents on issues relating to the region, and who was Obama’s foreign policy advisor on South Asia during the presidential campaign, was named on Tuesday by the White House to chair the inter-agency panel which has been asked to submit its report within two months before a Nato summit in April.
Riedel, currently a senior fellow at the Washington DC think-tank Brookings Institute, will take leave and work at the White House for 60 days, Presidential Spokesman Robert Gibbs said. He will coordinate with Richard Holbrooke, the newly-appointed US special representative to Af-Pak, who will co-chair the review panel along with Michelle Flournoy, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.
Gibbs said Riedel will report directly to the President and National Security Advisor Jim Jones.
Although the review pertains to the crisis-stricken area now called Af-Pak and does not involve India, Riedel’s appointment is being viewed as propitious in Indian circles because of his extensive knowledge of the region and a critical call he made during an India-Pak spat in the past. Riedel has a Masters in Diplomatic History from Harvard.
Riedel was working in the Clinton White House in 1999 when Pakistan under General Musharraf, emboldened by its nuclear status, invaded Kargil with its troops, and terrorists it called mujaheddin. Based on Riedel’s inputs, the Clinton administration determined that Pakistan was the wanton aggressor, and eventually forced Islamabad to accept a humiliating withdrawal even as it was faced with military rout.
The episode also led to Washington drawing a line in the sand insofar as the Kashmir issue was concerned, saying that it will not allow Pakistan to redraw the borders in blood, and virtually snuffing out Islamabad’s claim on the Valley.
US administrations have subsequently endorsed Indian democratic rule in the state, including the conduct of free and fair elections.
The 1999 American call went a long way towards healing the infamous Nixon-Kissinger pro-Pak tilt of 1971. It also changed Indian perception of CIA, eventually fostering close ties with the previously-dreaded agency that led to the visit to its Langley headquarters by then home minister LK Advani in January 2002.
Riedel has been part of the academic and think-tank circuit since his retirement from CIA in 2006. He joined the Obama team during the presidential campaign, advising him on South Asia.
Riedel’s appointment now is seen as yet another affirmation that publicly at least, the Obama administration does not consider the Kashmir issue particularly salient to Pakistan’s stability -- an argument that Islamabad makes persistently ("No Kashmir resolution, no peace."). This outlook is also what led to Holbrooke being appoint special representative for Af-Pak, with no reference to Kashmir.
Although Obama has spoken about the need to resolve the Kashmir issue, no one seems to be in a mood to humor Pakistan's claims.
US officials are now suggesting Pakistan has far greater and more urgent concerns than Kashmir, with a rampant al- Qaida and Taliban at Islamabad’s doorstep and its civilian dispensation barely in control of two if its four states.
There is a growing line of thinking that Pakistan will be better served by giving up its Kashmir obsession, an argument many Pakistani analysts made during last week’s "Kashmir Day" observation.
Riedel himself appears to believe that the state of Pakistan is still in cahoots with terrorists, a decade after its Kargil misadventure. In a panel discussion in Washington DC following the Mumbai carnage in November, he said it is difficult to believe the Pakistani government’s assertions that it was unaware of the plot "given the size of its (LeT) activities in Pakistan."
The Mumbai attacks were carried out by "professionals, who were trained by professionals who were given a professional plan... they were not a plot by amateurs or by a pick-up group," Riedel said, obliquely implicating the ISI and adding that "If there’s anything that is a 64 million dollar question today," it is finding out the "extent of its (Lashkar-e-Taiba) current ties to the Pakistani intelligence service."
As recently as January 29, Riedel said in an interview that ''in Pakistan, the jihadist Frankenstein monster that was created by the Pakistani army and the Pakistani intelligence service is now increasingly turning on its creators. It's trying to take over the laboratory.''
The Riedel-Holbrooke-Flournoy panel starts its work even as US lawmakers and the strategic community here have begun to acknowledge India’s role in Afghanistan stemming from both historical ties and strategic interests, to undermine which Pakistan fostered the Taliban.
A Congressional delegation led by the House Minority Leader John Boehner which visited Afghanistan last week noted India’s role and interest in the country. "You've got five countries that have a tremendous interest in what happens in Iraq and what happens in Afghanistan - Russia, China, Pakistan, India, and Iran,'' said lawmaker Peter Hoekstra who was part of the delegation. "They're all watching. They all have an interest in what goes on there. And so our success is critical into what happens in that region for the long term."
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/US/Obama_asks_Kargil_expert_to_review_Pak-Afghanistan_policy/articleshow/4113895.cms
