Islamabad: Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir’s “ill-considered decision” to declare war on Afghanistan amid the fragile situation at home has plunged Pakistan into a crisis with little prospect for a swift exit. By conducting airstrikes across the Durand Line, Rawalpindi has placed the Afghan Taliban alongside its long list of adversaries, a report highlighted.
“Despite applying brute force, including the use of drones and armed helicopter gunships, ongoing attacks on the Pakistan army, paramilitaries and law enforcement agencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are showing no signs of receding. The already precarious situation has been further mired by Field Marshal Munir’s ill-considered decision to declare war against Afghanistan. In short, he has pushed his country into a hopeless situation from which extrication in the near future would be very difficult,” an article in ‘Eurasia Review’ mentioned.
It said that by refusing to intervene and halt the “open war” that Pakistan has declared against Afghanistan, US President Donald Trump has abandoned his self-professed role of playing global “peace maker”.
“Such a ‘U-turn’ by a Nobel Peace Prize hopeful raises strong suspicions that Trump may have told his ‘favourite’ Field Marshal to teach Kabul a lesson for turning down his demand for handing over Bagram air base to the US. This may sound ridiculous, but then, hell hath no fury like Trump scorned, and isn’t the abduction of the Venezuelan president and his wife and what’s happening in Iran a manifestation of this?” wrote Nilesh Kunwar, a retired Indian Army officer.
“While Trump is fighting a war in a distant land and can disengage whenever he so desires, his ‘favourite’ Field Marshal doesn’t have this luxury. So the question that arises is, how could a military man expect that a neighbouring country that became the ‘graveyard’ of several empires could be bombed into submission? When the US-Israeli combine, despite pulverising Iran with extremely lethal and advanced munitions, has failed to subdue Iran, expecting Kabul to surrender is wishful thinking and just a case of great expectations,” he added.
According to the report, while it is unclear exactly how Munir earned the title of Trump’s “favourite” Field Marshal, there is no doubt that “complete and unconditional subservience” endears people to the US President, and Munir has lived up to that expectation.
“While Islamabad has condemned the US-Israel savage airstrikes against Iran, it has taken due care to ensure that Washington isn’t named an aggressor.”
(IANS)
