The United States in the post-World War 2 era carved out two distinct global enemy blocs: the Soviet Union and China. US foreign and domestic policies have been centered around these and the threat of communism of the “evil empire of Russia” and the “evil red empire of China.” Generations of Americans have grown up brainwashed, believing that their country and culture were forever being threatened by the “others”, the unknown “evil empires.”
During the 1990s, the direction of the military industrial complex and the White House shifted towards the Middle East, but this detour should not be misunderstood to be an end to the animosity that Washington D.C. had for Russia and China.
The Biden administration has demonstrated more aggressiveness on both “enemy” fronts than any of his recent predecessors. Before being elected, Joe Biden had published an article in Foreign Policy magazine in which he laid out his plans for international relations. In his declarations of promising a total departure from the Trump administration’s foreign policy, he clearly stated that he would seek to place the United States at the helm of the global political stage and that diplomacy would be the best path forward, particularly where China was concerned.
We are now 18 months into Joe Biden’s presidency. Far from diplomacy, we are as close to a Third World War as we have ever been. As if “poking the bear” (Russia) were not bad enough, the Biden administration and the US Congress are on a mission to also poke the Asian dragon (China). To Americans who voted for Joe Biden because he appeared to be “the lesser of two evils” (although that certainly does not seem to be the case now), what has rolled out as the Biden foreign policy phenomenon is a far cry from what he spoke of during his presidential campaign. So, yet another politician lied. What else is new?
Enter Pakistan
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan seems to have had a much more cordial relationship with Trump than with his successor. On his last visit to the United States in 2019, there seemed to be a genuine mutual respect between Prime Minister Khan and President Trump, who expressed a very keen interest in aiding in the process of a peace treaty between Pakistan and India over the disputed region of Kashmir. In fact, PM Khan was one of the only leaders that Trump truly showed respect towards.
That all seemed to change with the election of Joe Biden. Immediately after the global pause due to the Covid-19 virus ended, Joe Biden’s foreign policy began to expose itself and it was clear that it would be a far cry from the diplomatic, responsible leadership that he had campaigned on.
For Imran Khan’s part, he began to openly and honestly give interviews in the international media that Pakistan has been immensely betrayed time and time again by the United States during the war in Afghanistan and had lost too many lives in cooperating with the US’s war-mongering agenda. There is also the fact that the country has suffered tremendously due to terrorist and drone attacks due to this involvement.
Mr. Khan further stated even recently that the US demanded to install military bases in Pakistan in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last August and that he would have never agreed. After the US’s departure from Afghanistan, the point of these bases would be to conduct counter-attacks from Pakistan in case of any terrorist activities in Afghanistan. His refusal and reasoning to do so was undoubtedly being noted in Washington D.C. and the loss of a “working” partner in the US military’s agenda in such a crucial geopolitical location was definitely not received well by the White House nor the Pentagon.
Furthermore, Pakistan’s very close economic ties with China (one of the US’s arch-enemies) were never well-received. Investments in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) leading to the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, development projects in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, power plant projects, etc. have resulted in China becoming an indispensable economic partner.
Enter Ukraine
On the same day that Russia (the other US arch-enemy) launched special military operations in Ukraine, then Prime Minister Imran Khan decided to go to Russia to discuss Russian investment in building a $2 billion gas pipeline.
Amongst the US State Department and political analysts, these moves were seen to be clearly anti-US and anti-West in general. Ned Price, the spokesperson for the US Department of State, declared that the US was “certainly aware” of the trip, further adding that the US viewed its long-standing partnership with Pakistan as critical to America’s interests. Critical to American interests.
This last line is crucially fundamental to understanding the US’s position of discontentment of the company Imran Khan had been keeping. Clearly, Pakistan, with its strong ties with China and Russia (US enemies numbers 1 and 2), was not behaving in a manner of subservience to the United State’s interests any longer. To put fuel to the fire, Imran Khan’s speech in which he made it clear that Pakistan is not a slave to the Western hegemonic powers, further revved up the matter.
From the perspective of the United States, the cherry on the cake had been placed and it was high time to bring Pakistan back under its wings and install a US-friendly regime.
This is exactly what happened with the Pakistan parliament’s no confidence vote, when all the mechanisms were put in place to ensure that the US-unfriendly elements were ousted.
It is puzzling to read opinions of those Pakistanis who write that a US-backed regime change in Pakistan is a fabrication on the part of Imran Khan and that sudden parliamentary upheaval and shift of power to those who accept the US as masters is simply a natural course of events.
The innocence, or rather, naiveté of these opinions are nice but unrealistic. In the real world, we have witnessed throughout history how US-backed regime changes and colour revolutions occur. The US contrived a pro-American leadership in Pakistan. The agenda as a whole was hindering China and Russia from gaining hegemonic dominance over the United States and anyone who got in the way was to be punished.
What lies in the future for US-Pakistan relations is probably a repetition of what occurred in the past under “obedient” Pakistani leaderships.
*The writer is the Editor-in-Chief of Aequitas Review and the Executive Director of The Coalition for Human Rights & Democracy in Bangladesh.
June 4, 2022
