Now if we suddenly cough up Mullah Omar or attack the Islamic emirate of Waziristan, then the US might have actually won the better deal in the bazaar, but you know how it is in oriental bazars..usually its the white guy who gets stiffed

As everyone and his mother know by now, Pakistan is going to reopen the NATO supply lines it blocked 6 months ago. Amrika has not issued an “unconditional apology” or stopped drone attacks but Amrika is going to invite us to Chicago and will give us money. Of the two, the second is more important.   Apparently NATO will release between 500 to 1000 million dollars and also pay more for transit. In return, Pakistan will open the supply lines. The rest is details.

In the end, Pakistan (or specifically those who own trucking firms and security firms and so on) may end up making more money than it did last year. But were the Americans really resisting paying up? Did the routes have to be blocked so long to make them pay? and did the Difa e Pakistan council (Hafiz Saeed, chairman) have to be activated just to get this money? Was the US really haggling to the end? or was this a case of “overplaying our hand” as even Ejaz Haider has said.

There is no way for us to know. But unless Pakistan conceded something new in terms of policy, we are just back to square one.  All this talk of “humiliation” and even “surrender” is just talk and will fade in a few days. Our assets are safe. America is still stuck. And America is going to pay us some more for the privilege of being stuck.

Now if we suddenly cough up Mullah Omar or attack the Islamic emirate of Waziristan, then the US might have actually won the better deal in the bazaar, but you know how it is in oriental bazars..usually its the white guy who gets stiffed.

Of course, our short-sighted policies may eventually cause the bazar to burn so badly that no one remains to haggle with, but hey, it hasn’t happened yet.