ALI SUKHANVER
Is there anything like true-love in relations among countries internationally? No! there is nothing like that. Internationally, the relationship between two countries revolves only around interests and benefits and nothing else. Friends of today might be foes of tomorrow and enemies of yesterday might be friends of today. At international level, the other name of friendship and love is ‘necessity’ and the basic ingredients which make the relationship everlasting are forgiveness, forbearance and tolerance. Do you remember the two darkest rather cruelest days in the modern history of mankind; August 6 and August 9, 1945 when at the order of American President Harry S. Truman the United States dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which killed at least 129,000 people and left countless injured. Various reports on the incidents say, “Within the first two to four months following the bombings, the acute effects of the atomic bombings had killed 90,000 to 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000 to 80,000 in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness and malnutrition.” But astonishingly today the United States is Japan’s closest ally and Japan relies on the U.S. for its national security to a high degree. The two countries have very strong and close economic ties and stand side by side at every crucial juncture. Today the United States and Japan have firm and very active political, economic and military relationships. The United States considers Japan to be one of its closest allies and partners. It is said that Japan is one of the most pro-American nations in the world. This all shows that Japan has turned a blind eye to the nuclear bombing incident in its own larger interest. In other words we may say that Japan is acting upon that famous saying, ‘love me love my dog’. Same is the case with Russia and the Soviet states which once used to constitute the USSR. Internationally there is no bond of ‘true love’ among the countries and the nations. All depends upon needs and requirements. Sometimes, we, the people of Pakistan are also misguided by the false notion of ‘inter-nations true love’ but sooner or later, facts and circumstances bring us back to the world of bitter realities. Be it the Arab Kingdom, Iran, Turkey, UK or USA and even China, all our relationship with them revolves around a system of mutual needs and requirements. Practically there is no rule of ‘do good, have good’ when we analyze relationship between two countries. If it were the practical rule, Afghanistan would have been the closest friend of Pakistan and certainly the most obliged one. Let us cast a look at Pak-US relationship in the same context. Even a blind man can understand the reality that Pakistan and USA are so much needed and required by each other that they could never be at logger’s head even if they desire. In other words this Pak-US marvelous ‘friendship’ could never be broken unless until US’ dream of sustaining its position as World’s only Super Power is alive. For some people in Pakistan this news could give birth to some apprehensions that Trump administration is planning to harden its approach towards Pakistan. The Reuters has recently published a detailed report on the issue. According to the report the Trump administration intends to expand U.S. drone strikes, redirect or withhold some aid to Pakistan and perhaps eventually downgrade Pakistan’s status as a major non-NATO ally. The aim and objective of this shift is to crack down on so-called Pakistan-based militants who are allegedly launching attacks in neighboring Afghanistan. Commenting upon the report, Abid Saeed, Pakistan’s press minister in US said, “Singling out Pakistan and pinning the entire blame on Pakistan for the situation in Afghanistan is neither fair nor accurate, nor is it borne out by the ground realities.” Abid Saeed is very true in his analysis; stamping Afghanistan as an innocent country and branding Pakistan as a rogue country is neither fair nor accurate and certainly not true to the ground realities. Such actions of the Trump administration would do nothing but widen the distances between US and Pakistan temporarily. It seems that Mr. Trump in his heat and haste has forgotten that Pakistan continues to occupy a strategic position in the United States’ interests in Central and South Asia and is extensively engaged in vital social, economic, scientific and military relations with Pakistan. Moreover the US is one of Pakistan’s largest donors of foreign assistance and after China, the second-largest supplier of military equipment to Pakistan. In case the US withholds some aid to Pakistan and tries to downgrade Pakistan’s status as a major non-NATO ally, it would cause a severe damage to US’ own interests in the region. As far as the matter of drone attacks is concerned, there is no difference between drone-attacks and suicide-bombing; both kill a lot of innocent ones along with a few targeted ones. The faces behind suicide-bombing and drone attacks are widely hated particularly by the relatives of the innocent ones.