{EOP}Pak Army and the US: Gen. Kayani’s Strategic Defiance

Islamabad has predictably denied a report in Wednesday’s editions of the ‘Wall Street Journal’ that Pakistan is trying to wean Afghanistan away from the United States and draw it into China’s orbit.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in Islamabad called it the ‘most ridiculous’ report she has ever seen.
Even as Pakistani officials denied the ‘Journal’ story, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani affirmed Islamabad’s readiness to stare down Washington amidst the growing tensions between the two countries.
In a rally Wednesday in Islamabad, Gilani declared, “We are not ready to compromise on our sovereignty, defense, integrity and self-respect, no matter how powerful the other is”.
Soft-spoken Gilani is said to be reflecting the worldview of the Pak Army Chief, Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, who has concluded that he can defy the United States and establish Pakistan’s dominance in Afghanistan with the help of a rising China.
Nearly two decades ago, one of Kayani’s predecessors as the army chief, Gen. Aslam Beg made the case for Pakistan’s ‘strategic defiance’ of the United States. Beg’s timing was terrible as the United States emerged as the sole superpower at the turn of the 1990s.
Kayani’s strategic defiance in contrast appears to be better founded. It is rooted in the changing power balance between Washington and Beijing. It is also based on the premise that America, trapped in Afghanistan, can be bled slowly much like the Soviet Union was in the 1980s.
Those familiar with the recent dynamic in the relations between Rawalpindi and Washington have no difficulty understanding Kayani’s bold geopolitical calculus.
The ‘Journal’ report was based on leaks from Kabul about the meeting between a high powered Pakistani delegation and the Afghan President Hamid Karzai on April 16.
The delegation included Gilani, Kayani, ISI chief Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha, the Pak defence and foreign ministers and a host of senior officials.
According to the ‘Journal’, Gilani bluntly told Karzai, to “forget about allowing the United States a long term military presence in Afghanistan”.
Washington and Kabul have just begun negotiations about their bilateral security partnership after 2014, when the U.S. is expected to end its combat role in Afghanistan.
Pointing to the current American economic woes, Gilani apparently told Karzai that Pakistan’s ‘all-weather friend’ China will be a more valuable partner for regional development.
Gilani apparently told Karzai to choose between the United States and the West on the one hand and Pakistan and China on the other.
In brazenly supporting the extremist groups killing U.S. Soldiers across the Durand Line, turning the heat on American counter-terror operatives in Pakistan, and squeezing the overland supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan, Pakistan Army has been playing hardball with the United States.
On his part, Kayani has made it clear that the interests of Rawalpindi and Washington do not run parallel in Afghanistan. But it is by no means clear if Washington wants to recognise this reality and act on it.
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