American Troops In Pakistan

Over the past few weeks, the international media has been rampant in criticizing the hasty US withdrawal from Afghanistan and also about the Taliban’s atrocities on innocent Afghans. To date, on account of this media pressure, no country has officially recognized the Taliban as rulers of Afghanistan. This pressure is, of course, completely justified given the barbaric nature of the Taliban and given the internal differences amongst its various factions , it would be wise to wait and watch as to how the scenario unfolds.

A few years ago, while I was staying in the town of Ongwediva in northern Namibia, I had 2 dogs as pets. They were wonderful creatures, very friendly with each other, always playing in the yard and barking at any person walking in front of the house. However, when it came to feeding time, the equations changed completely. Even though I distributed their food equally and in separate bowls, there was plenty of animosity between them and each one would try to grab something from the other’s bowl. The Taliban reminds me of these creatures. As long as they were slaughtering innocent people or abusing women, the various factions of the Taliban were the best of friends. However, when it came to sharing the spoils of war, be it money or power, the animosity between them started rearing its ugly head.

The international media’s vehement and efficacious denouncing of the Taliban and its fervent supporter Pakistan, has certainly diverted people’s attention from a lot of other critical issues. Nevertheless, one key aspect on which the international media has been suspiciously silent is the presence of a number of US troops in Pakistan. They prefer to rave and rant about the atrocities of the Taliban and also about their aggression in the Panjshir valley but there is no mention of the surreptitious presence of US troops in Pakistan. The Pakistani media rambled about it a bit but were then told to shut up by their masters i.e. The Military Establishment.

As per reports from various sources, the number of US troops in Pakistan ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand. The official Pakistani narrative is that these are just US troops evacuated from Afghanistan and that they will leave Pakistan after a brief stopover. Even the most naïve of individuals can perceive that, if it was just a matter of evacuating troops, the US could have easily airlifted these troops to safer destinations in the middle east or even India rather than stationing them in a highly perilous and radical Pakistan. Various reports emanating from Pakistan clearly indicate that these troops are going to be based in Pakistan for a considerable period of time. So far, there is no clarity on the actual number of such soldiers or their capabilities or from which country/countries these troops were moved to Pakistan. So, the moot point is, what are these troops doing in Pakistan?

Logically speaking, the soldiers are not there to counter radicals or terrorists because, for that, they can just give the Pakistani army some dollars and they’ll fix that problem. They certainly won’t want to endanger the lives of American soldiers, especially given the domestic pressure back home over the Afghan withdrawal fiasco. The US and the west definitely don’t want stability in the AF-PAK region because instability in that region is the panacea to contain China’s BRI and also to keep Russia on tenterhooks. The Russians have clearly understood this move and hence, to counter it, they have started aligning with India in order to fight radical terrorism.

The US soldiers are not there in Pakistan to counter the Taliban either because they could have effectively done it while they were still in Afghanistan or they could use monetary incentives to get the Talban to toe their line. So, what are the US troops doing in Pakistan? As I mentioned before, instability in the region is the perfect recipe for the US and the west but there is one glitch that can spoil the whole meal i.e. the Pakistani nuclear assets. Despite the Pakistani insistence that their nuclear weapons are securely guarded, given the insatiable greed and corruption of the Pakistani Establishment, there’s a reasonable chance that some of these nuclear weapons might land in the hands of radical terrorists and that could prove detrimental to the US and the west.

Over the past many decades the US willfully turned a blind eye towards Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme because they needed Pakistan’s support to counter the Indo-Soviet nexus. Nevertheless, now that the whole scenario has changed, in the current equation, the Pakistani nukes have become a major hurdle in the US designs for the region. The US knows that, regardless of the quantum of financial incentives offered to the Pakistani Establishment, they can’t be trusted to dismantle and destroy all their nukes so as to prevent them from ending up in the hands of terrorists. In order to effectively seize and neutralize all nuclear weapons in Pakistan, it was imperative that US soldiers, including nuclear weapons specialists either do it themselves or effectively supervise the dismantling of these weapons by the Pakistani army. The complete support of the Pakistani Establishment has, of course, been obtained by giving them enough financial benefits, including oil exploration rights in Dubai. That explains why the US troops have received such a warm welcome in Pakistan and why the Pakistani media has been effectively silenced so that there is no unnecessary turmoil inside Pakistan. The Pakistani populace’s attention has already been diverted towards the glorious deeds of their much cherished heroes i.e. the barbaric Taliban so there is no need for them to know what’s happening behind their backs.

Once Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are neutralized, then a highly unstable AF-PAK region would be the perfect playground for the US and the west where they can play puppet masters who can conveniently dominate China, Russia, Iran and the entire middle east thus resetting the worldwide power equation.