Pakistan Seeks Control of Its Afghanistan Endgame

Encouraging Taliban attacks on NATO, leaders of the Pakistan military and its intelligence service are impatient for the US to abandon the war in Afghanistan. The Pakistani goal is to prevent a pro-India government in Afghanistan and install instead a puppet Islamic regime. In testimony before the US Senate Armed Services Committee, the outgoing chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, bluntly noted that Taliban leaders and the Haqqani network “operate from Pakistan with impunity.” Pakistani military leaders on their part seethe over growing ties between the US and India, and a former ISI chief suggested that the US seeks an Afghan “proxy” for India, explains Bruce Riedel, senior fellow at the Saban Center in the Brookings Institution. The US has little choice but to engage the world’s sixth largest nation, yet any hopes about negotiating with the Taliban to end the war vanished with the assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani. Pakistan’s insecurity and ambition, along with the US need to protect itself from terrorists, ensure continuation of a deadly embrace. – YaleGlobal