How Kashmir obsession turned Pakistan into toilet paper for the US
India Today
Pakistani Defence Minister Khwaja Asif described US treatment of Pakistan as "worse than toilet paper". The reference was to Pakistan's support of the US in its wars. What he doesn't mention is how Islamabad's Kashmir obsession actually brought its ruin.
Pakistan's Defence Minister Khwaja Asif, while speaking in the country's Parliament on Tuesday, made a particularly strong admission when he alleged that the US had treated Pakistan "worse than toilet paper". He said the US used and discarded Pakistan in pursuit of its own strategic interests. He described Pakistan's decision to align with Washington DC's stance on Afghanistan after 1999 as a grave mistake whose consequences would be felt for years.
Asif's admission stands out as one of the most blunt public criticisms of US alignment by a sitting Pakistani defence minister in recent years. It comes even as the country has been attempting to woo US President Donald Trump with a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for "pivotal leadership" and mining rights for rare earth minerals in Balochistan.
But the question that remains is this that how did Pakistan become a piece of "toilet paper" for the US to be used and discarded at will? Why did Pakistan align itself with US interests? And what consequences did Pakistan have to deal with because of its alignment with the US? And did the Islamabad-Rawalpindi hybrid regime's obsession with India and Kashmir play a role in it?
Pakistan, almost immediately after it was carved out in 1947, sided with the US on defence and security. Over time, Pakistan, which had evolved into a security state, deepened its cooperation, with its eyes on India, particularly obsessing over Kashmir.
Pakistan's alignment with the US further deepened during the Soviet-Afghan war, which lasted from 1979 to 1989. The US was looking for a regional security foothold and Pakistan emerged as a desirable option. While many newly independent nations tried to stay non-aligned during the Cold War, Pakistan emerged as the US's steadfast military ally in South Asia.
The strategic positioning of Pakistan at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East (Western Asia) and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia made it a staging ground for the US. And the Islamabad-Rawalpindi security regime used this leverage to make the US more comfortable with Pakistan militarily.
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