Is The United States Violating Pakistan's Sovereignty?
By Art Keller
In the USA’s schizophrenic relationship with Pakistan, one accusation frequently flung at the U.S. is that our “kinetic” activities in the tribal areas of Pakistan violate Pakistani sovereignty. This view is held most strongly by those Pakistanis who don’t live in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (aka FATA), and who don’t have to endure the tyranny of armed militants controlling their lives.
While it is true that Pakistan’s Army does maintain military outposts in the tribal areas, and those forces sometimes violently clash with militants, the Army does not now and never has had sovereign control as modern nation-states define the concept.
Graphic but grisly proof can be seen in this video clip.
It was drawn from a propaganda video produced by “Al-Amat” studios, the media arm of the Pakistani Taliban, for domestic distribution in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Its goal was to bolster support for the Pakistani Taliban among the local Pashtun populace, and to demoralize the Pakistani Army. (Warning: it shows a night raid on a checkpoint in North Waziristan manned by the Tochi Scouts, a branch of Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps. It includes graphic footage of dead Pakistani soldiers.)
The appalling footage of the dead Tochi Scout is followed by what can only be described as demonic-appearing Taliban jihadi railing against Pakistani Army soldiers. (Remarks are an excerpt).
Another key proof of this is the surreal custom of negotiating what are known as “Road Opening Days.” Road opening days are designated days during which local militants allow the Pakistani Army to move troops and equipment on the roads and agree not to attack them.
It is self -evident that any region you must obtain permission from others to transit is not a region you have sovereign control of.
If Pakistan’s generals were willing to demilitarize their “Line of Control” with India and move those troops to the FATA, they might indeed have the forces necessary to bring the fractious inhabitants of the tribal areas under Islamabad’s direct control. But until that happens, Pakistanis need to stop fooling themselves with the claim that “the U.S. is violating our sovereignty.” It is precisely Pakistan’s lack of sovereign control over the festering mess of militant activity in the FATA that makes our actions necessary. U.S. policymakers likely wish that Pakistan’s “sovereign control” of the tribal belt was a reality, but what Pakistan really has throughout the FATA is a simmering armed insurrection with yearly flare-ups. In fact this year’s flare up, this time in North Waziristan, is about due to ignite.
The U.S. may be a superpower, but even with all our technical magic, we cannot make disappear what was never there in the first place.
Art Keller is a former case officer who conducted operations against nuclear proliferation and terrorism for the CIA’s National Clandestine Service. He is the author of the new novel about the CIA and Iran, Hollow Strength.
Pakastani Soldiers (Photo credit: *_*)
While it is true that Pakistan’s Army does maintain military outposts in the tribal areas, and those forces sometimes violently clash with militants, the Army does not now and never has had sovereign control as modern nation-states define the concept.
Graphic but grisly proof can be seen in this video clip.
It was drawn from a propaganda video produced by “Al-Amat” studios, the media arm of the Pakistani Taliban, for domestic distribution in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Its goal was to bolster support for the Pakistani Taliban among the local Pashtun populace, and to demoralize the Pakistani Army. (Warning: it shows a night raid on a checkpoint in North Waziristan manned by the Tochi Scouts, a branch of Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps. It includes graphic footage of dead Pakistani soldiers.)
The appalling footage of the dead Tochi Scout is followed by what can only be described as demonic-appearing Taliban jihadi railing against Pakistani Army soldiers. (Remarks are an excerpt).
Disturbing as the words and images are in the video, the strongest proof that Pakistani claims of “sovereignty” in the tribal area are a fiction aren’t footage of the vicious attack, but rather the simple introductory graphics at the beginning of the video. The person selling this video is so confident that he won’t be bothered by the Pakistani Army that he provides the name of his business (Unique Computers), his name (Shahjee) and the location of his shop (Tawakal Market, Wana, South Waziristan). He is not just selling but openly advertising that he sells videos advocating the murder of Pakistani Army soldiers. These videos are for sale a mile and a half from the major Pakistani Army base in Wana. The Pakistani Army’s inability to police such fulminating militant activity on their own doorstep suggests that instead of sovereign control, what Pakistan’s Army really has in these tribal areas is a tenuous toehold.“WE WANT THE PAKISTANI ARMY TO UNDERSTAND THEIR GOALS. AND NOT TO…GO TO HELL FOR THEIR DOINGS. LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF BELIEF, BEING CLEAN, AND JIHAD IN THE WAY OF ALLAH. THINK ABOUT YOUR LIFE AFTER DEATH. ARMY MOTHERS, SISTERS, FATHERS, AND BROTHERS: MAKE YOUR CHILDREN UNDERSTAND. YOU HAVE WISHED THAT YOUR SON SACRIFICE THEMSELVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY, AND BE SUCCESSFUL. BUT TODAY YOUR SONS HAVE JOINED THE INFIDELS AND THE AMERICAN FLAG AND THEY ARE FIGHTING WITH MUJAHEDEEN AND RUINING THEIR LIFE AND AFTERLIFE, AND WILL GO TO HELL. WOULD YOU LIKE THIS TO HAPPEN TO YOUR LOVED ONES? YOU ARE THE WIFE OF THE ARMY SOLDIERS? DO YOU WANT YOUR HUSBAND TO BE YOUR PRIDE AND NOT A SLAVE?”
Another key proof of this is the surreal custom of negotiating what are known as “Road Opening Days.” Road opening days are designated days during which local militants allow the Pakistani Army to move troops and equipment on the roads and agree not to attack them.
It is self -evident that any region you must obtain permission from others to transit is not a region you have sovereign control of.
If Pakistan’s generals were willing to demilitarize their “Line of Control” with India and move those troops to the FATA, they might indeed have the forces necessary to bring the fractious inhabitants of the tribal areas under Islamabad’s direct control. But until that happens, Pakistanis need to stop fooling themselves with the claim that “the U.S. is violating our sovereignty.” It is precisely Pakistan’s lack of sovereign control over the festering mess of militant activity in the FATA that makes our actions necessary. U.S. policymakers likely wish that Pakistan’s “sovereign control” of the tribal belt was a reality, but what Pakistan really has throughout the FATA is a simmering armed insurrection with yearly flare-ups. In fact this year’s flare up, this time in North Waziristan, is about due to ignite.
The U.S. may be a superpower, but even with all our technical magic, we cannot make disappear what was never there in the first place.
Art Keller is a former case officer who conducted operations against nuclear proliferation and terrorism for the CIA’s National Clandestine Service. He is the author of the new novel about the CIA and Iran, Hollow Strength.
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