Pakistan is the villain, not hero of the war on terror

If National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has some time off, he could do a little binge-watching of the latest season of Homeland. Four episodes down, and it confirms the world's worst fears about Pakistan. As Hillary Clinton said so famously: "You can't keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours." 

The ISI is shown hand in glove with the Taliban, passing off misinformation about terrorist strikes to protect important leaders on the CIA hitlist; using thugs and gangsters who do contractual work like organising hits and staging intimidation; and even unmasking American operatives to win sympathy. It does so through a series of characters: the Pakistan army general who believes 9/11 to be an American-Israeli hoax to start a modern crusade against Islam, played by Indian Art Malik; the Pakistan young man caught between radicalisation and a new world of opportunities, played by an Indian, Suraj Sharma; and a Pakistani young woman working for ISI who is playing the Americans in a very smart move, also played by an Indian, Nimrat Kaur. 

In the midst of all this is Carrie Mathison, who asked to be CIA station chief in Islamabad, immediately after the ghastly death of her predecessor in the streets (he was snatched from the official car and stomped on by a mob after he is unmasked as the man responsible for a drone attack that kills a wedding party). She does everything that Mark Mazzetti in The Way of the Knife says the new spies are doing - uses covert ops that are off the books, uses local assets (in this case a stalking horse who will lead them to the target, they hope) and a single-minded focus on the manhunt.

Indeed, anyone who has read Mazzetti's brilliant book on how the CIA has become a manhunt agency will not be surprised at the kind of espionage the all too real Homeland shows. Or indeed the US strategy in the region. As Mazzetti says in his book, the CIA's new strategy of war by drones and small commando teams appealed to President Obama who didn't want to continue the wars he had inherited in Iraq and Afghanistan. If in Season 1 and 2, Carrie was obsessed with hunting down Abu Nazir, Nicholas Brody's one-time jailer; in Season 3 she shifted attention to Iranian head of the Revolutionary Guard Danesh Akbari. In Season 4, in keeping with the strategic concerns of the world right now, she wants to eliminate Taliban mastermind Hassaim Haqqani. 

Pakistan and America are shown to share a prickly relationship. As the Pakistani general tells his old friend Saul Berenson, former CIA director who now works in the private sector, America has already lost Afghanistan, just as the Russians did, to the Taliban. And after Abbottabad, no one in Pakistan wants to be seen to be friendly to the Americans either.

So much for the very special relationship. 

The lifestyle of CIA operatives - stuck on campus for the most part, forced to drink to while away their boredom, forever followed by ISI agents, not being able to trust anyone, and if in Kabul, living in a bunker and killing by remote control - is fascinating. Can't wait for episode five.