The China Daily, a Chinese government media outlet, published an article, “Pakistan key to Afghan peace process,” by an author from Pakistan, an ally of China, which not only drips with irony but unabashedly explains the Chinese-Pakistani plan for the future of Afghanistan. It originates from the “non-governmental” Beijing think tank, the…
There is a mind-numbing consensus among U.S. military leaders, past and present, that goes a long way to explain the 17-year stalemate in Afghanistan. They are clueless and stuck on automatic pilot. Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, who gives highly paid lectures on “Lessons of…
President Trump sent a letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan stating that relations with Pakistan are “very important” to solving the Afghan War and asking for his help and cooperation in advancing peace talks with the Taliban. It is a bit like asking former Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh to help…
Yes, it is President Trump’s war now, and he doesn’t know what to do about it. The bad news is: neither do those advising him. So, the Trump administration has chosen to prolong the stalemate by continuing an expensive, exhaustive and entirely inappropriate counterinsurgency strategy in the desperate hope that…
Armed separatists of the Balochistan [Pakistan] Liberation Army (BLA) stormed the Chinese Consulate in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on Friday, triggering an intense hour-long shootout during which two Pakistani civilians, two police officers and three insurgents died. Although there have been numerous isolated attacks on Chinese personnel working in Pakistan…
During an interview with Fox News, President Trump stated that Pakistan has done little to curtail Islamic extremism — even sheltering al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden — despite accepting billions in aid from the United States. The president implied what many have come to believe: that Pakistan is responsible…
China and Pakistan have plainly stated their plans for Afghanistan and South Asia. According to a press release from the November 12 conference held at Islamabad’s Pakistan-China Institute, “Pakistan-Afghanistan-China Trilateral Dialogue supports the CPEC [China-Pakistan Economic Corridor] as key to peace and regional cooperation.” Pakistani news outlets emphasized the point, one stating, “Pakistan and…
I am not talking about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a program of infrastructure and resource exploitation projects linked to a transportation network that connects China to the Pakistani ports of Gwadar and Karachi on the Arabian Sea, the flagship of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Beijing’s blueprint…
China seeks global domination. The vehicle to achieve it is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a collection of infrastructure projects and a network of commercial agreements designed to link the entire world directly to the Chinese economy through inter-connected land-based and maritime routes. The guarantor of that soft power approach is the hard power of military expansion.…
The Global Fragility and Violence Reduction Act of 2018 (H.R.5273), sponsored by New York Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, who is a vociferous opponent of President Trump, seeks “to reduce global fragility and violence by improving the capacity of the United States to reduce and address the causes of violence, violent conflict and fragility in pilot…
School children in Pakistan’s vital port of Gwadar will be required to learn the Chinese language replacing their native Balochi language, according to the Indian Economic Times. It is a further indication of China’s de facto colonial ambitions in Pakistan and the suppression of Balochi ethnic identity, both of which serve the…
For too long, many presumed experts have attempted to solve the problem of radical Islam by dissecting religious texts or recommending the support of so-called “moderate” Islamic factions. It is a fool’s errand. The problem with radical Islam, like other forms of political extremism, is that it is hegemonistic and…