Proceed With Caution

War makes strange bedfellows. The coming conflict is no exception: the American government’s determination to strike back at those responsible for the atrocities of Sept. 11 has led it to seek out new, unlikely allies. In order to accomplish our military goals in Afghanistan, our armed forces require permission to overfly several Asian nations. The military also needs secure ground space for headquarters and rescue and supply teams. This area of the world, however, is not among the more hospitable regions to American interests, and our nation has found itself cajoling, coercing and negotiating with various states in the vicinity of the Taliban’s wretched dominion.

Our allies at this point include such bastions of Western ideals as Pakistan and the struggling former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. American determination to form a pan-national anti-terror coalition has even led it to make overtures to other states that stand accused of supporting terrorism: Iran and Syria both come to mind. The trouble is that, while the governments of these nations may be willing to ignore previously cold relations with the U.S. or to cooperate for the sake of debt relief and favor in the eyes of the world’s only superpower, their citizens often are not. Protests and violence at the prospect of U.S. military action against Afghanistan often occur in these countries, and images of individuals celebrating the attacks against America should remain emblazoned in all of our minds.

The U.S. should be especially concerned with the current unrest in Pakistan, a Muslim nation with a small but fearsome fundamentalist minority. Thousands of citizens have recently taken to the streets to protest the pending military action in Afghanistan, demanding that Pakistan cease its cooperation with the U.S. It will obviously be very difficult to assure the safety and security of any American or Western personnel deployed in Pakistan, a fact highlighted by a Sept. 25 statement attributed to Osama bin Laden: “We tell our Muslim brothers in Pakistan to use all their means to resist the invasion of the American crusader forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

America should proceed with any military build-up in Pakistan carefully and under tight security, and it must be prepared to take defensive actions in the event of terrorist or guerrilla attacks against American positions. The U.S. is not deploying forces to secure or welcoming environments, as it did in the war against Iraq 10 years ago. It is true that there was some local unrest at the appearance of American soldiers in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, but many were convinced that the American military presence was needed to defend them from the imminent threat posed by Iraq. In Pakistan, no such argument can be made. The Pakistani government has offered its cooperation out of necessity, since any rejection would have been met with American fury and the possibility of punitive strikes.

We should not delude ourselves into thinking that all will welcome the war against terror. In the midst of our newfound allies there are powerful factions that support the Taliban and will view American action as a declaration of war against Islam. In this war, which seems likely to begin at any moment, few areas will be safe, and few allies will be completely trustworthy. As a result, we should send as few personnel as possible to be stationed in Pakistan, and we should not blind ourselves to the reality of these precarious alliances. With minimal support staff based in Pakistan, the brunt of the impending U.S. assault should come from carrier-based aircraft in the Arabian Sea and U.S. Air Force units based further from Afghanistan. In the coming war, we should not leave ourselves more vulnerable than absolutely necessary. Enough American lives have already been lost.

—David J. Gorin