The discourse on Sunday is fixated upon the notion that India has been unsuccessful in isolating Pakistan globally. There is a lot of anger regarding how the USA and China have rushed in to save our nasty neighbour once again just when we had our hands on their throat. US President Donald Trump in typical Trumpian fashion has declared he will try to mediate between the two countries to see if a solution can be reached on Kashmir after a “thousand years”.
All of this has left Indians on social media perplexed. Indians believe it is a failure of the Ministry of External Affairs that Pakistan has not been isolated yet. It is not their fault for thinking that way. The Indian Government at various times has stated that one of the objectives of Indian Foreign Policy is to ensure the isolation of Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism. The Government has not been honest with its citizens regarding the feasibility of it. It is well past time for citizens to understand why Pakistan cannot be isolated globally.
Why it is impossible to isolate Pakistan globally
Pakistan may have been created by the bloodlust of the Jihadist. However, it has been sustained since its independence by the Geopolitical Ambitions of the West. Pakistan would not have been able to endure itself in its current form in 2025 had they not been amenable to being the West’s Watchdog in the Indian Subcontinent. The disintegration of Pakistan in 1971 was possible due to the existing geopolitical realities of the time. India had the USSR in its corner. China was not big player. India had the window of opportunity and we took it. Circumstances have changed a lot since then.
While Pakistan has been serving two different masters for well over a decade now, the USA still remains its primary master. China needs Pakistan for access to Central Asian markets. It also needs them to harass India. The USA needs Pakistan for a base to counter China. Both these world powers are well aware that Pakistan is using them both for its own ends. However, they are happy to continue the arrangement if their requirements are met in the long term.
Under such circumstances, it does not matter how efficient our Ministry of External Affairs is. If the two premier powers of the day are both backing a country, global isolation is impossible. Then there are countries that will back Pakistan because of Islamic connections. All of this dooms the pursuit of global isolation at its very conception. The Indian Government pays lip service to it due to diplomatic appearances. However, it is safe to say that they are aware of it as well. Nonetheless, one cannot blame Indians for genuinely believing the lip services of their government.
Why the West does not take the ‘Sponsor of Terrorism’ charge seriously
Indians are often bewildered by the West’s lack of seriousness about Pakistan’s sponsorship of terrorism seriously. They might be less bewildered if they were aware of the USA’s own record of sponsoring terrorism for their geopolitical objectives. Indeed, the USA has mastered the art of waging proxy wars through terrorist outfits.
The tactic was used very effectively in Afghanistan, when the USA armed, funded and trained the Mujahideens to take on the Soviet Union. Osama bin Laden was one of the many monsters that were birthed by the American midwives. Years later, Laden brought down the Twin Towers that instigated the ‘War on Terror’. The success of that war is debatable as are the intentions that motivated it. Within a decade, Laden’s outfit Al Qaeda was on USA’s payrolls.
Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser, infamously wrote to Hillary Clinton in 2012, “Al Qaeda is on our side in Syria.” The ‘Civil War’ in Syria to effect a regime change was the perfect example of the US using terrorism to achieve a geopolitical objective. Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, aka Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the current President of Syria, is a terrorist who was once on USA’s payroll.
The Islamic State (ISIS) also benefited immensely from the USA’s sponsorship of terrorism. The CIA’s Timber Sycamore covert operation had a mandate to train and arm Syrian ‘rebels’ to oust Bashar al-Assad from power. As part of the operation, the CIA supplied the ‘rebels’ with a huge amount of arms and ammunition. American Special Forces were also used to train these ‘rebels’. Of course, it became public knowledge later on that the ‘rebels’ were all Al Qaeda and ISIS terrorists.
Jihadists killed more 3000 Americans in a single terror attack on US soil. Within 10 years, the US was back training and arming Jihadists. If the US National Security Establishment does not care two hoots about the lives of American citizens, it is foolish to expect that they will care about Indians.
India is on its own against Pakistan
Pakistan is a terror state that India will have to deal with on its own. And the Indian Government has dealt with it. The United States and China had made peace with the fact that there is no way they could save Pakistan from a whacking. What shocked them was that the whacking Pakistan received was anything beyond they believed India was capable of. India whacked them in a way that resonated around the world.
Indians might not be satisfied with the outcome but India has won this round decisively. A precedent has been set. The next misadventure would mark the end of Pakistan as we know it. India destroyed eleven Pakistani air bases on its own. India made a mockery of its air defence systems on its own. India made a mockery of its air force on its own too. India will not be able to isolate Pakistan diplomatically. Our Ministry of External Affairs could be the best in the world. Even then, it won’t happen. But it isn’t an essential requirement for raining hellfire upon them. And so, it is not cause for any discouragement.
