The operation on the outskirts of Peshawar notwithstanding, Pakistani military leadership should refrain henceforth from any operations in our tribal belt without the full endorsement of the government and the parliament. For the sake of our stability, this should be a shared responsibility. At worst, the elected government’s decision to abrogate this responsibility is a trap. If things get ugly, this decision will ensure that all blame rest with the military for ‘killing our own people,’ in a repeat of the outcry that followed the Red Mosque operation last July.

Since the parliament is supreme, our senators and representatives should be given the opportunity to invite the terrorist ‘commanders’ in the tribal region or their representatives to come to the parliament and present their grievances. If the terrorists insist on fighting, the decision to use force should come from the elected representatives, on behalf of the nation.

As things stand, the government has not only shifted all responsibility to the military leadership, but Prime Minister Gilani made a strange statement over the weekend suggesting he is opposed to the use of force. President Musharraf, the supreme commander of the armed forces, and the military leadership need to understand the evil game being played out in the wider strategic context. Fresh Pashtun anger in case of civilian casualties will play right into the hands of those, inside and outside the country, who are scheming to see NWFP get out of Pakistan’s control for good.

What’s more stunning is that Pakistan today has an elected government that is more pro-American than any other administration in recent times. This should be a revelation for Pakistanis. Our ambassador in Washington, for example, has refused point black to condemn the June 10 U.S. aerial attack against Pakistan, the first American military aggression against this country in sixty years. A Pakistani ambassador in Washington who talks more like a junior staffer at the U.S. Department of State is a sign that Pakistan today is a nation under siege without firing a shot. At least the U.S. had to invade and occupy Iraq and Afghanistan to ease such people into power.

For Pakistani decision makers, this is not a time for optimism. It’s better to be cautious now – even paranoid – than sorry later. The events in our tribal region did not emerge from a void but are a continuation of a dirty game that culminated last year and continues unabated, involving some neighbors and some allies.

Note the ebb and flow since last year of U.S. media leaks on Pakistan’s nuclear assets. Every time a report comes out to scare the world about a terrorist threat to Pakistani nukes, militants in our tribal region spring into action and provide the world with enough images to justify the propaganda. In the past three weeks, this propaganda coincided with – and was confirmed by – images from Pakistan of religious extremists slaughtering two Afghans, the kidnap and release of Pakistani Christians, and the media hype about the imminent fall of Peshawar to terrorists. This is not the first time an external media campaign focused on our nukes coincides with a sudden implosion in our tribal belt.

It is beyond doubt now that external powers are maintaining active and influential assets inside Pakistani territory and among the tribal militants, who are heavily infiltrated. In fact, the quality and quantity of the weapons, terrorists and money that is coming in from the Afghan side indicates that we already have on our hands a Low Intensity War being waged against Pakistan from the Afghan territories. The mobilization of foreign intelligence assets in the tribal belt is timed with an international campaign, led almost exclusively by U.S. media and calculated statements by U.S. officials, that eventually aims at convincing the world of the need to disarm Pakistan’s strategic capabilities. Washington is also using the Afghan soil to insert crack units inside Iran to conduct acts of sabotage and psychological operations to disorient the Iranian government.

What is unfolding now both in Pakistan’s domestic politics and on our border with Afghanistan is ‘creative chaos’. If you have superiority in intelligence gathering and multiple means of buying out loyalties, like the U.S. does, then the fog of chaos is a good way of confusing the enemy and achieving the objective. Pakistan right now is the target of a disorientation campaign originating from the Afghan soil. The U.S. wants to target Iran and neutralize Pakistan’s ability to maintain influence in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

This is not about blaming the U.S. for our problems. Pakistan needs to set its own house in order but there is no question that the insurgencies in Balochistan and NWFP were almost nonexistent before 2005. These rebellions are the direct products of the machinations of the powers that are based in Afghanistan since November 2001. To draw a line in the sand, Islamabad should openly declare Washington and Kabul directly responsible for feeding the sectarian clashes in the north and the separatist violence across our western region. The Kabul government is responsible for the activities of another player on its soil: the Indian intelligence.

The main reason for Pakistan’s vulnerability is weak leadership and a flawed political system that breeds instability. To get over this, a strong federal government will have to be introduced in Islamabad at some point that is not tailored to American taste. This government cannot be drawn from the existing failed political class and cannot be a repeat of past military governments. Cleaning the slate in Pakistan will require some creative thinking.-SANA