As a tenuous ceasefire settles after yet another outbreak of military actions between India and Pakistan, the U.S. finds itself in a curious position as peacemaker. Clearly, America’s leaders want (and need) to do everything to keep the calm between two nuclear nations with a long history of animosity toward each other and work toward a solution that ensures that violence doesn’t resume.
But there is something the U.S., and the world, need to come to terms with. Pakistan continually engages in state sponsored terrorism.
The investigation into the Pahalgam attacks will eventually reveal how much of a role, if any, that Pakistan had in funding, training and abetting the terrorists. Despite this, there is an uncomfortable truth that Pakistan and its allies (including the U.S.) fail to admit. There are many terrorist groups inside the Pakistani borders. And they aren’t exactly hiding from the Pakistani government.
The Pakistani government has been accused by not just India but Iran and Afghanistan of providing safe havens for terrorist groups. Also, ask any veteran of Afghanistan, and they will confirm that Pakistan’s Northwest tribal areas were a de facto safe haven for groups (including the Taliban) as they crossed into Afghanistan to fight and kill Americans. When Al Qaeda fled the U.S. assault in 2001, they fled into, you guessed it, Pakistan.
Most infamously, we all know that Osama Bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan. We also know that the Obama administration and the U.S. military did everything possible to not tell the Pakistani government or military about the operation to kill Bin Laden because they could not trust them with the information. That sentence alone should have been damning, but in this complex world of geopolitics, the U.S. decided the embarrassment of Pakistan harboring Bin Laden was enough. Except it wasn’t.
In the years since, the Taliban moved in and out of Afghanistan with such regularity that Obama had to increase the number of drone strikes inside Pakistan. Think about that for a second. We had to launch missile strikes on an ally because they had thousands of terrorists inside their borders.
The Pakistanis were among the first to call for talks with the new Taliban government after the U.S. exit, claiming the Taliban victory had “broken the shackles of slavery.” There was a small problem. The Taliban’s origins in Pakistan means there are plenty of Pakistani Taliban supporters who want that type of government where they live.
These Pakistan Taliban militants are now carrying out terror attacks on Pakistanis. You read that right. The terror group that the Pakistani government supported is now killing Pakistani citizens while operating out of Pakistan.
The Inter-Service Intelligence, Pakistan’s intelligence service has long had a comfortable relationship with the Taliban, much to the chagrin of the United States and others. But they didn’t just help the Taliban. We know that the Inter-Service Intelligence has funded and trained groups with the intent of carrying out terror operations in India. Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terror group inside Pakistan, carried out the 2001 terror attack on India’s Parliament and the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The training, weapons, money and planning all originated in Pakistan. Here’s the thing. They are still in Pakistan. Its founder Hafiz Saeed, has a $10 million bounty on his head by the United States and yet he sits in a military protected residence with a private park in Pakistan.
Iran also claims that Pakistan has funded terrorists to conduct attacks within its borders and has itself launched attacks on terror sites in Pakistan. Iran said that Pakistan is funding Sunni separatists movements in eastern Iran. If that sounds familiar, it is the exact same playbook that India claims Pakistan is doing in Indian controlled Jammu and Kashmir.
Iran accusing Pakistan of terrorism might cause American readers some bemusement. After all, the U.S. has designated Iran a state sponsor of terrorism because of “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.” Cuba, North Korea and Syria are on that list too. But if you do that math, you might be left scratching your head.
Pakistani terror groups (including the Taliban) have killed more Americans than Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Syria combined. Pakistan has more known terror groups within its borders than these countries and has allowed those groups to conduct attacks on all its neighbors as well as its own citizens.
If India and Pakistan sit down to talk, President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio need to take a hard line on Pakistan. It was already worrying that Pakistan is using Chinese fighters in this current conflict, giving the Chinese valuable data on how their fighter does in combat. They should also be worried about Pakistan’s plan to let China build a port in Gwadar, which would be a massive threat to the U.S. and its access to the Persian Gulf.
But even more important is the worry that Pakistan and its Inter-Service Intelligence will continue to support and foster terrorist groups that will attack India, allowing them to plan attacks on targets much closer to home.
Jos Joseph is a master’s candidate at the Harvard Extension School at Harvard University. He is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq and lives in Anaheim, Calif.
