By Ayaz Amir

Bush was a disaster for the United States; he was also a disaster for us because another one of our military geniuses - whom we cannot seem to get rid of hitched Pakistan to his wagon.

But Bush is gone, reviled and detested. America wants to move on. It’s time for us also to move on.

Moving on in our context means redefining the conflict - once-upon-a-time called the war on terror - which has laid waste to the strategic north west of our country. The tribal regions (agencies) bordering Afghanistan have passed out of any semblance of Pakistani control. Assorted Taleban hold sway there and our army is bogged down in a conflict which, with the present means and approach, it simply cannot win.

Redefining shouldn’t mean withdrawal or retreat. Because extremism, terrorism and the kind of Islam the Taleban are trying to impose are problems which have to be met if Pakistan is to be saved. But there is no resolving these problems so long as the army performs sentry duty for the US. This is a recipe for failure, the last seven years providing ample proof of this. Far from being licked Talebanism and extremism have expanded and are on the rise.

If we are to see success instead of more failure, and if the army is to get out of the no-win situation in which it is caught, we cannot keep travelling down the same road. We have to find a new path through the woods.

So the challenge is to fight extremism on our own, according to our own thinking, without subordinating our interests to America’s, even as we keep our American alliance intact. Only fools will contend we break this alliance completely.

The Americans have a problem in Afghanistan. We have a problem at home. Let America fight its own war. We must fight ours. And while Americans will say that the two theatres of conflict are inter-locked, we have to tell them that despite similarities there are sharp dissimilarities as well.

In Afghanistan the Taleban are waging a war of national resistance. (The sooner the Americans come round to accepting this the better for them.) But what Baitullah Mahsud is carrying on in Waziristan and Maulana Fazlullah in Swat, to name but two figures, is not national resistance. It is disruption and anarchy in the name of Islam.

We have to look at these problems through our eyes, not America’s. The Obama administration has already unfurled its foreign policy agenda. Afghanistan and Pakistan top the list of its priorities. The danger in this greater American interest is obvious. If we are weak and vacillating and stupid we can be squeezed and even crushed by this greater attention. The fissures already visible across our national landscape can grow sharper, threatening national unity.

But there is also an opportunity in this emerging situation. If we play it right, taking up the challenge of extremism as we should, without pussy-footing, without playing games - such as running with the hare and hunting with the hounds - we can emerge stronger from this fire, tempered by its fierce flames.

Shortly we are going to see more American troops in Afghanistan.

Realising the threat to supply routes through Pakistan, which have come under attack during the last two months, General David Petraeus, the man commanding America’s legions in this war, is negotiating alternative supply routes through Central Asia. Which shows the seriousness of what the Americans are embarked on.

Afghanistan thus is set to be the new Iraq and since both history and geography condemn us to be in the path of any gales which blow from Afghanistan, it will be no different this time. We will again be in the path of the storm. The challenge before us will be to ride out the storm, not be destroyed by it. The challenge before Pakistani statesmanship - if such a thing is to be found in Pakistan - is to harness the greater American focus on Afghanistan to our interests.

India was happy with Bush. Early signs suggest that it is a bit uncertain if not uncomfortable with the first notes struck by the Obama administration. This is an opportunity for Pakistani diplomacy, provided we know which keys to play.

But all this requires leadership, the one commodity Pakistan is without. The leadership shortage is greater than any shortage of gas and electricity. Where we need strong and wise men/women, we have figures of straw, empty vessels, heroes moulded from tin who, moreover, do not heed their shortcomings and make no effort to overcome them.

Their knack for being lost in struggles whose purpose is lost on most of their countrymen is astounding.

There is no point in recounting President Asif Zardari’s inadequacies.

As an accident of history he is an accidental president. But he is president and we have to make the best of it. Nor are there any Churchills on the other side of the political divide. A Sahara of leadership is what stretches before us. Still, we have to make do with what we have.

Which is not to say that our leaders do not test the nation’s patience. Common sense demanded that they put a premium on unity. But a year after the Feb 2007 elections they are once again preparing to be at each other’s throat. Their differences could be easily settled. But that would require goodwill and patience, and a modicum of understanding, qualities evidently hard to come by in the desert of our politics.

Mercifully, the Pakistani nation has learned at least one lesson. In the past, the failure of politics was an excuse for the army to step in, which we now know is the greatest disaster of all. Any lingering doubts on this score were put to rest by Pervez Musharraf.

So what do we do?

If the Obama inauguration, and especially Obama’s inaugural address, proved anything it is that he is brilliant, exceptionally intelligent and very poised. Given the expected focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan, our leaders will be interacting with Obama and his team.

Zardari in conversation with Obama: gives one the shivers. He, and indeed our other leaders, would be more comfortable with John McCain and Sarah Palin, more in their league. But there is no escaping the unavoidable. Pakistan can no longer postpone bidding farewell to the siren calls of ‘jihad’. The world won’t stand for this activity any more. The sooner our security establishment understands this the better for Pakistan.

The old days are gone and with them the old verities. Guerrilla or proxy war as a strategic option no longer makes any sense — that is, if it made any sense in the past. Pakistan must return to being a ‘normal’ country. There are enemies within: sloth, corruption, nepotism, waste, incompetence in simple things. The list is endless. We must wage war against these.

Afghanistan can take care of itself. Why should it bother us if India has one or six consulates in Afghanistan? If we are at peace within, a hundred Indian consulates can do us no harm. But if Balochistan is restive and its people unhappy, even one Indian consulate is too many.

We should not give up on Kashmir. Can China give up on Taiwan? The same logic applies here. But China is wedded to peaceful means to solve the Taiwan problem. So should it be with us regarding Kashmir. The call to arms is no longer an option.

At the same time, we must move towards friendly ties with India. Tension with India does us no good. Maintaining our position on Kashmir and friendly relations with India are not mutually exclusive propositions.

China’s stand on Taiwan has been no impediment to China developing strong economic ties with Taiwan. So should it be with us regarding Kashmir and India.

Pakistan’s soul is troubled but this is not an incurable condition. The advent of the Obama administration provides us an opportunity to turn a new leaf and discard the baggage of the past. Provided the leadership we have - and no one is about to send us a leadership from Mars - somehow, through some miracle yet unknown, starts giving a better account of itself.

(Ayaz Amir is a distinguished Pakistani commentator and lawmaker)