Speaking to
Paul Jay and The
Real News, Junaid Ahmad explained the geopolitics
behind the potential new target of the US imperialists: Pakistan.
Junaid Ahmad
is the Director of Center for Global Dialogue and Professor of Middle
Eastern Politics at the University of Lahore, Pakistan. He is also
the Secretary-General of the International Movement for a Just World
based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and a Visiting Fellow at the Berkeley
Center for Islamophobia and Ethnic Studies Graduate Center.
It appears
that the ultimate target is always a major opponent in the global
geopolitical arena: China.
Ahmad
explained:
There are a
couple of significant developments which are marking various shifts
in local geopolitics. A very important point was in March 2015, when
the Pakistani military, for the first time ever, had the courage to
say no to the Saudis in being willing to participate in their war
against Yemen, which is an excellent decision they made to not
participate in this murderous war.
The
Pakistani military has in the past almost served as a mercenary army
for many of these Gulf regimes and has been part of this axis of kind
of the US, Saudi and before that the Cold War framework of non-Arab
regimes in the region trying to maintain that architecture of
control. Turkey, Pakistan, Iran before of course the Iranian
revolution.
Now,
Pakistan is not longer the same Pakistan of the Cold War. And what we
have seen post-9/11 is a strengthening of an old relationship that is
with China. And now, we're at a point where the Pakistani military
literally is getting the type of basically money that it has been
getting from Washington. It's no longer beholden to Washington in the
way that it has been in the past.
These are
interesting developments and I think that the Pentagon and the CIA
realize this. This is why they're kind of going all out in making
India their frontline state. We have been now witnessing border
skirmishes between India and China, which are also reaching some
dangerous levels, over the past few months.
I'm half my
time based in Malaysia and if you see it from there, where you have
US naval ships and military bases encircling China, you understand
fully well why the relationship with India right now is so crucial in
the geopolitics of the region and why they want India to play that
role in Afghanistan. It's the only kind of trusted ally. From China's
part, one thing people fail to realize, the most powerful ally that
China probably has in the world, closest ally, is Pakistan. It's a
mutually dependent relationship.
The billions
being invested to build this port in Gwadar, in Pakistan would be a
major accomplishment for the Chinese, especially in the case of a
major conflict where they're choked in the South China Sea and
elsewhere. These are all the geopolitics of the region that do
explain why I think that Washington is becoming more bellicose, is
more willing to kind of once again call out the Pakistanis but
they're doing it now almost because the Pakistanis really at this
point don't really care as much because they're getting the full
backing of Beijing.
Apart from
recent Trump's statements about Pakistan, other agents of the US
military-industrial complex have nearly verified the fact that
Pakistan is the next potential target after Afghanistan. We saw
retired Colonel Jack Jacobs destroying
all pretexts and cynically admitting to Rachel
Maddow that the real goal behind the extension of US military
presence in Afghanistan is the rich mineral deposits.
In the end,
he revealed that Afghanistan will be used also as a major US military
base towards the next target, which is Pakistan:
The real
problem is actually inside Pakistan and it includes a corrupt
government, no control over local areas, a poorly trained army, and
so on. None of the things that the president mentioned are going to
change that very much, except a commitment to stay in Afganistan for
several decades (!!!)
So,
briefly, a potential invasion of the US military in Pakistan, will
serve at least four key objectives:
- Block further Chinese economic expansion in the broader region on behalf of the US corporations
- Deprive from China a reliable ally and the opportunity for naval exodus to the Arabian Sea, therefore
- Suffocate China even more, by expanding the ground encirclement arc around it
- Boycott the relationship between the two major powers in the region, China and India, as being both members of the BRICS
The US army,
as the military branch of the US corporate neocolonialism, will not
tolerate the Chinese economic expansion in the US backyard, or
elsewhere. The US military reinforcement in Afganistan and potential
invasion in Pakistan, is an act of aggressive retaliation against
this expansion, among other things. Well, there is a big difference
that we should always point against those who morally equalize US and
Chinese expansionism. Because China didn't invade, bombed, or even
entirely destroyed any country, unlike the US.
As I understand it, the US needs Pakistan as a logistics route into Afghanistan, or else permission from Russia and the Central Asian States to take that route. If the US intends to attack Pakistan from Afghanistan, it won't have access through Pakistan, and I hardly think that Russia is going to oblige in all the present circumstances. Furthermore, should an attack come from Afghanistan, wouldn't the Pakistanis likely arm the Talibs with anti air weapons against the US? Am I missing something here?
ReplyDeleteThe US has already 'recruited' India:
Deletehttp://thesaker.is/pentagon-makes-a-20-year-plan-while-washington-outsources-its-color-revolution/