Twitter wars
Social media has transgressed into the political and diplomatic
field. In the case of US President Donald Trump, this is hardly new. From the
election campaign trail to the White House, he is by now infamous for firing
off messages on Twitter that have more often than not embarrassed his own
administration, annoyed allies and a host of countries around the world, and
arguably made the task of keeping the US centre-stage in global politics that
much harder. In Pakistan’s case, Trump’s views are hardly breaking news. In
January 2018, soon after taking office, he cut off payments due as well as aid
to Pakistan, citing a series of complaints of Pakistan not helping Washington
in its longest running foreign war in Afghanistan. Undiplomatically irrepressible
as he has proved, Trump set off a new controversy in an interview with Fox News
the other day in which he castigated Pakistan in not so polite language as not
doing anything to help the US despite receiving billions of dollars in aid. Of
course we in Pakistan by now have our own tribe of twitterati, headed by no
less an eminence than Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan. It was inherent in the
nature of things then that the PM should choose Twitter to round on the US
president, in the process reminding Trump that Pakistan had sacrificed 75,000
lives and billions od dollars because of disruption of peace, terrorism and the
fallout of joining the War on Terror, a war the PM characterised as “America’s
war”. This hardly came as a surprise either, since the PM’s views on our
joining in a war not of our making are pretty well known. In this war of words
against the US president, not only ministers of the government but even leading
lights of the opposition chimed in. In response to Imran Khan and others’
stinging replies, Trump, never one to take such responses lying down, also
followed up his remarks in the interview with even more laden diatribes on
Twitter. The whole exchange has brought the already fraught relations between
Pakistan and the US to a new low.
US President Donald Trump can be maddeningly rude, obtuse
and downright stupid. Nevertheless it is up to us to cogitate appropriate
responses to his provocations (this may well not be the last). It may have been
more appropriate not to sink to Trump’s level and attempt to conduct
‘diplomacy’ through Twitter. The US ambassador having been summoned to have a protest
demarche at Trump’s remarks issued was and still is the more dignified course. Resorting
to Twitter or social media means playing on Trump’s wicket, on which he revels
in being as outrageous as possible. A mature, considered, well argued response
would have served us better, in the process avoiding the ‘personalisation’ of
exchanges that should have been conducted through traditional (GHQ-Pentagon)
and diplomatic Foreign Office-State Dept.) channels. Had that course been
tried, it may have strengthened the hands of those Trump administration
officials who have been trying through most of this year to smooth the
frictions in the relationship with Pakistan and solicit its help in finding a
political solution to the unending Afghan conflict, apart from bringing to the
world’s attention the rudeness of Donald Trump and Pakistan’s dignified
response. It should be taken note of that perhaps Trump’s renewed ire at
Pakistan stems from frustration at not only not making progress in Afghanistan
against a resurgent Taliban, but putting the blame entirely on Pakistan for
harbouring the Afghan Taliban on our soil since 2001 and Osama bin Laden till
he was killed by US Seals in Abbottabad. Pakistan’s sticking to some level of
support to the Afghan Taliban, whether in the form of safe havens on Pakistani
soil or more, stems at least partially from strategic calculations surrounding
who holds power in Kabul and who is that regime friendly/friendlier with. This
is where Islamabad’s concern about the Indian influence in Afghanistan comes
into the picture. The gap between the current perceptions and future solutions
to the conundrum of the Afghan war on both sides cannot be narrowed by Twitter
wars. It can only overcome the complexities and roadblocks to peace through
bilateral and multilateral efforts for a civilised dialogue amongst all the
stakeholders.
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