Commenting on Bangladesh situation, Ambassador John Bolton, former Defense Advisor in the Trump administration, in an exclusive interview to Blitz editor and internationally acclaimed multi-award-winning anti-militancy journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury said, “The rise of religious extremism we’ve seen has been conducive to terrorism. That’s threaten innocent people all over the world. And the terrorism from Islamist extremists, over the past three decades, has caused the most damage – has killed the most people in Muslim countries. So certainly, the United States has been attacked by Islamist terrorists on 9/11. We all know that. But what people don’t see is the accumulation of the terrible effects of terrorism in the Muslim world as well. So, I just, I wouldn’t give any political advice to the people of Bangladesh, but I would say the idea that the answers to the current problems that confront us is found in that kind of extremism is the wrong road to go down”.
When asked, if Ambassador Bolton thinks that the international community including the United States should cooperate with the Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and ruling Awami League government in combating Islamic terrorism, as since 2009, the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been vigorously confronting terrorism and religious extremism, Ambassador Bolton said, “it’s very important that the US be consistent. There’s nothing sort of good terrorism and the bad terrorism. And you know, we want to encourage everybody to live under the rule of law and everybody is entitled to due Process according to their own legal systems but there’s no upside for the United States and encouraging, any political faction or government that’s engaged in or supporting terrorist activity. I mean, I think our strength in this area comes from consistency. Nobody’s perfect in that either, but I think we should be on the watch to avoid inconsistency”.
Commenting on Pakistan, Ambassador John Bolton said, “When asked, should the United States depend on Pakistan as an ally in fighting terrorist as Islamabad in the past has betrayed with Washington and used American money towards funding terrorists, Ambassador John Bolton said, “Pakistan was the only government he knew of that consisted of arsonists and firefighters at the same time”.
Ambassador Bolton said: “It was a grave mistake for the United States to withdraw from Afghanistan and they have NATO withdraw with it. As you said, I think the mistake was back with the Trump administration and its initial decision to negotiate with the Taliban, which undercut the government, which made people and the military, the government and the civil society as a whole, feel that the US government was more interested simply withdrawing from Afghanistan than achieving in real. Please I don’t think statements made by the Taliban, commitments they may have made in the negotiations, whether it’s Taliban or Haqqani Network, or Gulbuddin Hekmatyar whoever it might be. Wherever credible, I don’t think Taliban and its allies ever intended to adhere to some of the things that they promised, there’s a condition to get the United States to withdraw so, tragically what we see in Afghanistan right now was entirely predictable and, the negative consequences that the US feels now by bringing greater danger of terrorist attacks coming from Afghanistan. The strategic vacuum that we left for Russia and China and the terrible consequences for the population of Afghanistan, we can all see everyday. So, I think the US’s response to this has to be, number 1: no recognition of the Taliban government directly or indirectly, I think we should certainly try to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan not to the Taliban government, not to have them had any control over the supply or distribution or assistance, really to any fund government provides and then urgently speaking with leaders to the Afghan resistance to see what assistance we might be able to give them, communication assistance, certainly this point non[lethal] military assistance, there are many things we can do but, we need to know and have close conversations with resistance.
“I think all of this for surprise and how quickly the Afghan government fell including many people in Afghanistan who obviously didn’t want Taliban to take over. So, many were caught by surprise, there are resistance leaders outside of Afghanistan now, soon they will have to return. We all remember the lion of the [inaudible] valley, Ahmed Shah Masood, his son is now a leader among the [inaudible] and others, we need to see more of a resistance structure now. That bring me to the issue of Pakistan, you have rightly said, it has been involved in turmoil in Afghanistan for many years and I remember a former American diplomat who worked on the Afghan question for many years, used to say that the government of Pakistan was the only government he knew of that consisted of arsonists and firefighters at the same time. The arsonists we’re the people who have supported a number of terrorist groups including and Pakistan’s dispute with India put also support of the Taliban and Haqqani Network and others. I think now in Pakistan itself, we have got a very complicated situation with respect to the government and who is in charge and what future political events we are gonna see but, I think the US prospective should be that it’s not in the long term interest of the government of the people of Pakistan to support terrorism.
“It may seem advantageous in the near term in certain circumstances, long term. It’s never going to work; it’s never going to benefit. Pakistan, it will cause as it, I think is causing now, trouble inside their own country. So, this is a conversation, we’ve had for many years with Pakistan, but I think, it takes on real urgency now because the Taliban are once again back in control across their border and I think helping to contribute to instability inside Pakistan itself. So, this is also something I think other countries in the region can help out with. But it’s going to be complicated. I say that because it’s been complicated before and I don’t think it’s going to be any simple to this time”.
