was a time when India acquired military equipment from Russia and Pakistan from the US. Times have changed. India is looking west for its military needs and we are looking east for the same reason. The Russian defence minister visited Pakistan in November 2014 to sign a defence pact between the two countries. An earlier visit by Russian defence minister, Andrei Grechko, had taken place half a century ago in 1965.
It is reassuring to observe that Pakistan is prominently mentioned for its role in the emergence of a new superpower of the east. If China and Russia occupy a pole each of a triangle, Pakistan seems to occupy the third pole. A country that the US used for promoting its global agenda and for fighting a war on terror of its own making is suddenly catapulted to form an alliance with eastern giants, Russia and China. This speaks for the sagacity of the leaderships of the three countries.
It is important to know about the public perception regarding US and China. While the first is considered a predatory world power that occupies weaker countries to control their energy resources and to establish its global hegemony, the second is seen to genuinely promote their economic interests.
China’s investment to develop the railways network in Iran and to explore natural resources in Africa is huge. It does this with the understanding of the host countries and not by power of the muscle, which the US employs. Obviously using power breeds violence. Martin Luther King in his time called the US the main perpetrator of violence in the world.
Iraq was neither involved in terrorism nor did it pose any threat to the US and Europe. The imperial power ravaged the country with its formidable military power, resulting in loss of more than million and half innocent Iraqis. Similarly, Moammar Gaddafi didn’t pose any direct threat to US interests. Gaddafi was toppled, mercilessly butchered, and his body humiliated.
Above all, ask the Iraqi and Libyan people if they were happy under Saddam and Gaddafi or if they are happy now under the ‘democratic freedoms’ headed by western stooges.
The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore.
Email: pinecitygmail.com