• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Friday, March 31, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Trump Undermines Afghan Security by Fueling Indo-Pakistani Rivalry

Michael Hughes by Michael Hughes
08/26/17
in Featured, Video, World
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The doctrine referred to by national security scholars as “strategic depth” is the driving force behind why Islamabad supports extremist groups to destabilize Afghanistan. Pakistani generals, according to this doctrine, believe they must control Afghanistan in case there is ever another war with India.

Hence, Pakistan will never abandon assets like the Taliban, including the Haqqani Network, so long as it views India as an existential threat. History has shown that the Pakistanis will turn up the heat via their proxies as bilateral ties between New Delhi and Kabul grow stronger.

This is why many experts believe the key to peace in Afghanistan is Indo-Pakistani rapprochement. However, the Trump administration appears to think the exact opposite based on the war strategy unleashed by the president earlier this week.

During a nationally-televised address on Monday, President Donald J. Trump called on Pakistan to address terrorist safe havens while sending overtures to India that the United States wants to enhance bilateral ties.

Worth quoting in full is Mr. Trump’s insinuation that Pakistan’s harboring of terror groups could ignite a nuclear war.

“For its part, Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror,” Mr. Trump said at Ft. Myer in Arlington, Virginia. “The threat is worse because Pakistan and India are two nuclear-armed states whose tense relations threaten to spiral into conflict. And that could happen.”

Former State Department Political Officer Matthew Hoh told The Globe Post that he found Mr. Trump’s rhetoric towards Pakistan alarming.

“Particularly troubling to me were President Trump’s words about nuclear weapons at the end of his speech – I viewed those as a threat directed toward Pakistan,” Mr. Hoh said. “I am greatly worried that we have a President of the United States, who is easily influenced, making such threats to Pakistan while giving fairly overt backing to India.”

Mr. Hoh also indicated he is worried that India or elements within India may “act upon” Trump’s words, viewing the president’s message as a bonding of an alliance.

“Further, we have some very aggressive generals in the most senior civilian positions in the U.S. government now,” Mr. Hoh said. “We also have a U.S. military that, since the Obama Administration, has been working on a new generation of smaller, usable nuclear weapons. All of this can lead very quickly to disaster.”

At a press briefing on Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert seemed to try to lower the temperature a few notches, saying the United States encourages India and Pakistan to engage in direct dialogue to reduce tensions.

Tom Gouttierre, a former State Department political affairs officer who used to head the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO), told The Globe Post that while he appreciated Trump making a commitment to Afghanistan, the address lacked some key elements regarding a regional solution.

“What was missing, obviously, is recognition of the fact that those two nations, Pakistan and India, are using Afghanistan to wage a proxy war against each other,” Mr. Gouttierre said. “It is important that they stop it. Unless they do there is no chance for security in Afghanistan.”

Moreover, Trump’s address on Monday night, Mr. Gouttierre continued, did not “recognize the complexity” of the relationship between India and Pakistan enough to render his message credible across the board.

Mr. Gouttierre also said he feared that the US State Department would make the same mistake as past administrations by appointing a Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“What is necessary is a [US] special envoy between Pakistan and India,” Mr. Gouttierre suggested. “That’s where the whole thing gets resolved.”

Authors Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald, the first journalists allowed back into Afghanistan by the communists during the 1980s, told The Globe Post that the legacy of the current situation goes back almost 200 years to the East India Company and the British Empire’s goals in Afghanistan.

“The British could never break Afghanistan so the empire brought in its surrogates in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Pakistan has been the conduit for this agenda,” Ms. Gould said. “The problem is in London, Islamabad and Washington, not Kabul.”

Mr. Fitzgerald added that “switching to India is just another move in the Great Game to break the local power structure whatever it might be.”

University of Arizona History Professor David Gibbs decried Trump’s decision not to pull out of Afghanistan considering the U.S. public “is clearly wearied of the whole project.”

“In addition, there is a strong implication that the U.S. will augment its relationship with India, presumably as a means of pressuring Pakistan to cease its covert support for extremist groups in Afghanistan,” Mr. Gibbs told The Globe Post.

For the most part, he added, the Trump strategy is a continuation of longstanding U.S. policy since 2001 to use American forces to “prop up” an unpopular Afghan central government indefinitely “with little prospect of anything that can be presented as a military victory, or even political success.”

Until Trump grasps the concept of “strategic depth” and the downside of alienating Islamabad while courting India, Pakistan will continue to destabilize Afghanistan to a degree just short of risking full blown confrontation with the United States. Or, as Pakistani President General Zia was wont to say: “Keep the pot boiling, but not boil over.”

ShareTweet
Michael Hughes

Michael Hughes

Related Posts

Taliban fighters
Featured

UN Expert Decries ‘Systematic’ Attacks on Afghan Shiites

by Staff Writer
September 12, 2022
Afghan refugees
Featured

Pakistani Migrants in Afghanistan Caught in Quake No-Man’s Land

by Staff Writer
June 27, 2022
Afghanistan
Middle East

Taliban Vows in Geneva Talks to Protect Aid Workers: NGO

by Staff Writer
February 11, 2022
Afghan women
Middle East

Afghan Women Activists Say They Feel Betrayed by Oslo Talks

by Staff Writer
January 24, 2022
Afghan women protest
Middle East

Afghan Women Protest Against Taliban Killings of Ex-Soldiers

by Staff Writer
December 28, 2021
Afghanistan drone strike
National

No US Troops to Be Punished Over Deadly Kabul Drone Strike

by Staff Writer
December 14, 2021
Next Post
German Ambassador, Deniz Yucel, jail, human rights activists, Amnesty International

German Ambassador Visits Imprisoned Citizens In Turkey

Erdogan Signals Turkey Won’t Release Jailed American Pastor

Ankara Accuses US Pastor of Trying To Overthrow Turkish Government

Recommended

Damage from a series of powerful storms and at least one tornado is seen on March 25, 2023, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi

After Tornado Kills 25, Mississippi Faces More Extreme Weather

March 26, 2023
Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
participants of an artificial intelligence conference

How AI Could Upend the World Even More Than Electricity or the Internet

March 19, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
Heavily armed police inspect the area near a Jehovah's Witness church where several people have been killed in a shooting in Hamburg, northern Germany

Eight Dead in Shooting at Jehovah’s Witness Hall in Germany

March 10, 2023
Myanmar Rohingya refugees look on in a refugee camp in Teknaf, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016

US Announces $26M in New Aid for Rohingya

March 8, 2023

Opinion

Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Top view of the US House of Representatives

‘Cringy Awards:’ Who Is the Most Embarrassing US House Representative?

February 13, 2023
Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post