Mumbai Terrorists Prospered Under U.S.-Backed Musharraf

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Source: Dawn Editorial



Never far from the news, Pakistan has been firmly in the global spotlight since the Mumbai attacks. The steady drip of leaks from investigators in India and comments by Indian and American officials suggest that a Pakistan connection to the Mumbai attacks has been irrefutably established, at least in the eyes of the wider world. There is, however, a second, sometimes unspoken line of charges against Pakistan: that we are a state with weak governance where terrorist groups have long run amok. "Enough is enough, now put your house in order," the world led by India and the U.S. is saying to Pakistan. We wish the world, and in particular the United States, wasn't so selective in its memories of what has brought Pakistan to such a pass.

If Lashkar-i-Taiba reached the kind of position of strength that it was able to execute the Mumbai attacks with such consummate ease, it didn't do so in a vacuum. The Lashkar’s capabilities grew on the watch of General Musharraf, a military strongman supported by American dollars and a White House that believed he was its best bet for taking on, in the tribal areas, al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Even as it became clear that General Musharraf wasn't delivering on American demands and perhaps was playing the dangerous double game of covertly supporting militant groups, the Americans steadfastly stood by their man. The past year provided a particularly unedifying juxtaposition of a desperate general clinging to power and the resurgence of the two largest political parties, the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League, Nawaz Branch , both which unambiguously support closer ties to India. Throughout that tussle, the U.S. remained a silent spectator, keen not to upset a fading dictator. So it must be said that militancy is a problem not only because of Pakistan’s numerous sins of commission - but also because of sins of omission by the U.S., whose interests in Afghanistan led it to back a ruler who made neither Pakistan nor the region safer.

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