Great game continues; Round 3 of the neo-con agenda.

By
Talha Mujaddidi
Dec 13th 2008

Part 2

After 9/11 U.S started its crusade against the Muslim world. First round of this crusade started when U.S invaded Afghanistan, then later Iraq. After 9/11 U.S said that Al-Qaeda is the real culprit behind 9/11. U.S never presented any evidence against Al-Qaeda to any government or world body. To this date no evidence had been presented. Similarly U.S went to war with Iraq on a false pretext of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Ron Susskind’s book highlights the fact that highest authority in the British government knew that this was a false alarm operation.

U.S and Israel are together in this so called war against terror. Second round started when Israel was given green light to destroy Hezbollah in South Lebanon. After one month of intense fighting and using all the resources that they had except nuclear weapons, Israel was unable to crush Hezbollah. U.S tried to create a civil war inside Lebanon so that Hezbollah could be involved in fighting internally this plan also failed. After this, Israel pressurized the Bush administration to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program militarily. U.S and Israel go about this issue in two separate ways. U.S does not want confrontation with Iran on this issue. U.S is not in a position to start a confrontation with Iran on this issue. Israel on the other hand wanted military solution to Iran problem. Israel even threatened unilateral strikes against Iran. This did not receive green light from Washington. Israel then turned to India, who was already a strategic ally of the U.S. The nexus of U.S, Israel and India is now turned against Pakistan. The targets as mentioned before are Pakistan’s nuclear program, ISI, army, then breaking up Pakistan into smaller pieces.

This is beginning of round three. After the breakup of Soviet Union Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to Carter, and probably the shrewdest neo-con alive today came up with a plan. The plan was to control Middle East and Central Asia so that twenty-first century could be another American century. Brzezinski is not the father of neo-conservatism (that was Strauss), but right now the most influential neo-con. Some of the details of his plan are laid out in his book, “The Grand Chessboard”. In 2006, it started to become clear that the next U.S president could be someone who would be a handpicked brainchild of Brzezinski. This brainchild is none other than Barrack Obama. The Republican Party could only offer McCain as a presidential candidate; McCain did not even enjoy support of many republicans to begin with. On the Democrats side it was clear that Al Gore would not run, Kerry was labeled as a flip flop after 2004 elections, Howard Dean became the party chair. Hillary was the main candidate but she is not liked much by Israeli lobby in the U.S. Israel has still not forgiven Clinton for Camp David Accord. John Edwards, in my opinion was the best candidate of all the nominees, but again he has middle class roots, and would never become a puppet of Military-industrial complex of the U.S. Hence it came down to Obama, Brzezinski’s brain child. Obama himself mentioned clearly that in foreign policy matters he will consult Brzezinski regularly. What is the grand plan that Brzezinski has made? The main target is containment of Russia and China, followed by controlling the energy reserves of Central Asia and remaining part of Middle East. Recently we saw highlight of things to come, when limited conflict between Russia and Georgia broke out in August in South Ossetia. Brzezinski plan first calls for neutralizing Pakistan, so that in future there could be no threat from Pakistani nuclear weapons to either Israel or its new found love India. It’s interesting to note that recently different Israeli notables including former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Pakistan’s nuclear program causes great danger to Israel. Why? Pakistan’s nuclear weapons can only cause danger to Israel if In future it plans to threaten Pakistan. They tried to do that in ’84, when they along with India made unsuccessful attempt to bomb Kahuta Nuclear plant. In the new map of Middle East, Pakistan is supposed to be divided into at least three possibly four parts as per the U.S plan. A separate Baluchistan, N.W.F.P incorporated in Afghanistan, two parts of Sind, and left over Sind and Punjab.

The convergence of U.S and Indian designs are limited until this point only. After this things start getting ugly. The problem is clash of ideologies. U.S is following a completely capitalistic, imperialistic ideology. India is following an ideology that is neither compatible with capitalism nor with imperialism. Remember Nehru doctrine, India is not happy with U.S inter-mingling into India’s affairs either. It’s only that against Pakistan Indian and U.S designs converge. Recall when Nehru was Prime Minister of India and Pakistan joined Baghdad pact. At that time Nehru was angry and said that we don’t like the fact that Pakistan has called a greater power into this region, and as long as a great power player like U.S is involved in Pakistan-India disputes, India will not solve Kashmir dispute. India doesn’t want a bigger power player destroying its regional hegemony. As Obama has said clearly, almost words out of Brzezinski’s mouth that Pakistan is the target and it will be attacked by drones, air strikes, and if needed covert operations also will take place to kill terrorists. (Remember terrorist are the pretext U.S has been using in post 9/11 world to attack countries). Obama has also said that Kashmir dispute must be resolved and U.S will mediate in Kashmir dispute. This is where there is a clash between Indian and U.S strategic goals. U.S wants Kashmir to be an independent country. If Kashmir is independent nation numerous benefits can be obtained by U.S, first it will be foreign policy trophy for Obama, secondly then U.S will force Pakistan and India to sign a no war pact. Then India will be the big brother in this region. Pakistan will not have any use for its nuclear program, no need to maintain a huge army, so on and so forth. U.S wants NATO troops to be places in Kashmir, they want to control air fields there, for e.g. the one in Laddakh, they want to encircle China, and then send in militants to create problems inside western China, where there is a huge Chinese Muslim population. India can never allow Kashmir to be broken up; India’s main concern is to destroy Pakistan. U.S wants to align India against China but India wants to remain neutral in U.S conflict with Russia and China. India had a choice, to consolidate its relationship with Pakistan but it chose a difficult path. Iran offered that choice to India, Indian economy is in dire need of energy resources, Iran offered gas pipeline to India via Pakistan. U.S will not allow anyone to get a hand on oil and gas reserves of Middle East and Central Asia. India was pressurized by U.S to step back from that agreement; instead it was given nuclear energy deal. India will not survive without oil and gas. The primary battle in the world is for oil and gas. If Iran, Pakistan, India gas pipeline project would have gone through then these three countries would not have been fighting with each other in future. India’s 15% gas requirement would be coming through Pakistan. U.S doesn’t want that. Instead it has offered India the plan that once Baluchistan is broken up from Pakistan you can get gas from Baluchistan via its seaport Gwadar. At the same time the U.S can use Baluchistan to create trouble into Iran. Again I think it’s a bluff for the Indians I am sure that U.S will not allow anyone taking any energy resources from its control. But Kashmir issue still remains and there is no way India will agree to it. There’s also the problem of Myanmar, or Burma. It’s a country virtually cut off from the world only in touch with China. Myanmar has gas and some oil reserves. This is where in future conflict could arise, and China will claim stake in these reserves. Brzezinski wants to use Islamic militants to create trouble in Central Asian Islamic states. No wonder Saudi government is talking to Taliban trying to bring them together into Afghan government. Just like these militants were used in Afghan war against Soviet Union, Brzezinski wants to use them again against Russia and China. Once land link between Pakistan and China is cut off, Kashmir issue is resolved, and there is relative calm in Afghanistan, with Indian army troops maintaining law and order in Afghanistan affairs. The Islamic militants could be moved towards Central Asia. Under Brzezinski plan conflict between Russia and U.S is inevitable. The brilliant part of the plan is that Brzezinski wants Iran to join hands with U.S. This is not really an off the wall plan either. Iran until Khomeini’s revolution was staunch U.S ally. After the revolution in Iran, U.S created Iran-Iraq war that resulted in hostilities between Arab world and Iran. These hostilities remain to this day. Russia is a strong supporter of Iran now, Russia also uses, a port in Syria. Obama has said clearly that he wants to engage both with Syria and Iran. Russia is also watching all these movements very closely. Iran has applied to become a member of SCO group that consists of all former Soviet countries of Central Asia, Russia, and China. If that happens then U.S plan against Iran will suffer greatly. China has said that if conflict takes place between India and Pakistan it will support Pakistan without a doubt. Obama’s tenure in office will see more violence in South Asia and Central Asia. It’s not clear if Iran will accept U.S offer to join in against Russia, and Arab world. It’s not that simple! Khomeini was more than just a revolutionary leader; he was the great Imam for Iranian people. He called U.S the biggest devil on this earth and responsible for sufferings of the Muslim world. It’s not easy for Iran government to engage with the big devil again. But like any country the choices for Iran are limited too.

Coming back to Pakistan, our choices are extremely limited too. India has troops inside Afghanistan and more troops will be pouring in the coming days. U.S is also bringing in 20,000 more troops in Jan 2009 into Afghanistan. India has built a road network in Afghanistan that goes all the way to Iranian border. India and Iran have strong relations with each other. As long as the U.S and NATO supplies go to Afghanistan from Karachi port, Indian navy can’t do a blockade of Karachi. Iran has a port near Baluchistan border its Charbahar port. Iran’s Charbahar port will be useless if Gwadar starts functioning and the city starts flourishing, since Gwadar is located before Charbahar. Plus Gwadar is of prime interest to China. India has told the U.S that since your supplies are getting a beating in Pakistan, why don’t you let our ships take your supplies through Iran into Afghanistan? Since U.S ships can’t go into Iran’s port. This way U.S will not be dependent on Pakistan and Karachi, then Indian navy will be in a position to blockade Karachi. Then India will bring troops on to Pakistan-India border. At the same time India will be in a position to attack us from our western border as well, Afghanistan. India will not start a full scale war but its plan is to somehow gain control of Azad Kashmir. Once India has control of Azad Kashmir, U.S plan to make Kashmir independent can’t go through as the area will become more disputed than before. India will be in a much stronger position and U.S will be unable to control Kashmir. This scenario poses grave risk since in any India-Pakistan border conflict there’s no guarantee that full scale war will not erupt. Likewise there is no guarantee that full scale war will not result in use of nuclear weapons. As recently as yesterday, U.S Secretary of State Condi Rice has warned India again not to take any step that could lead to a full scale war between India and Pakistan. Will India listen to that advice? That remains to be seen. Condi Rice has told U.S Congress, in reply to a question asked by Sen. John Kerry ,that U.S has a contingency plan of securing Pakistan’s nuclear weapons if need be the details however can’t be discussed since they are classified. With Russia getting edgy because of U.S designs against it, and China vary of Brzezinski’s plan the world is back to pre-Second World War era.

At moment all is going well for U.S with regards to Pakistan. The country is under control as far as the U.S is concerned. One week before Shah’s downfall Iran was also under complete control of CIA. Then over night the country changed. My point is that U.S plan is playing with fire in South Asia and Central Asia, this region consists of regional powers like India, Pakistan who both have nuclear weapons, and there is Russia and China two greater powers, and Iran who is on the path to becoming a nuclear power. A wrong move by India, U.S itself, or any other country could start a regional conflict that could easily become a global conflict. We should remember that it’s not just U.S troops in Afghanistan, there are NATO troops there too, meaning that they represent different countries of Europe. Plus troops from Canada, Australia and some other smaller countries also present in Afghanistan. The problem is that U.S is not in any mood to leave Afghanistan. In fact it’s not in a position to leave Afghanistan even if it wants to since there is no end to this conflict in a meeting room. Just like the Soviet Union, U.S is realizing that when you go and occupy a sovereign nation you are in no position to negotiate with rebellious militants (Taliban). The only way out for U.S is to leave in disgrace and defeat like Vietnam but U.S is not willing to look down that line. It’s thinking in totally opposite direction to expand the conflict in this region even if it threatens a fourth world war.