Asim Munir should know when in a hole to stop digging, says ex-Pentagon official as he blames Pakistan for conflict with India
Indian military showed strong planning
Rubin said, “Pakistan started the conflict with its support for terrorism. Indians were the victims of terrorism. While I was initially critical that Prime Minister Modi had taken so long to respond, but it’s clear that the Indian military was carefully planning and the Indian military has shown itself to be far more capable.”
He said that Pakistan is now attempting to manage the fallout. “Pakistan is thrashing about, looking for a way to save face. But Asim Munir should understand that the first rule of hole digging is when you’re in a hole, stop digging,” he said.
Call for terror designation
Rubin said there must be one clear measure in any future diplomacy. “Looking forward, there can only be one metric by which we look at the diplomatic solution to this issue. Pakistan has to be designated by the United States to be a state sponsor of terror,” he said.
He pointed out that the US has named specific groups but not the state. “The United States has previously designated individual terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, but we haven’t designated Pakistan itself as a state sponsor of terror. It’s time to stop designating the tentacles of the octopus and designate its head. The United States should side unequivocally with India,” he said.
Pakistan failed to protect its minorities
Rubin said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders are uniting to protect all Indians. He said, “The job of any democratic leader is to protect their citizens. What we see PM Modi and others across the Indian political spectrum doing is rallying to the realisation that all Indians are under threat.”He accused Pakistan’s military leadership of encouraging division. “Before this started, Asim Munir gave away his goal. He argued that Hindus and Muslims should not be able to live together,” he said.Rubin said the communities do live together in India. “The fact of the matter is that they live together successfully in India. The only reason why they no longer live successfully together in Pakistan is because Pakistan has systematically driven its minorities out of the country,” he said.
Pakistan turns on minorities in times of crisis
Rubin said Pakistan’s leadership targets minorities during internal crises. “Every time Pakistan fails inwardly, in terms of corruption, economy, society, or its leadership, it turns its guns on its minorities to distract the Pakistani people from the government’s failings. That is the playbook of a failed state. Fortunately, India has a different playbook in which all Indians thrive and openly discuss their issues,” he said.
US says India-Pakistan conflict is none of America’s business
US Vice President JD Vance said that the conflict between India and Pakistan is “fundamentally none of America’s business” and the United States cannot control the situation. Speaking to Fox News, Vance said, “Fundamentally, India has its gripes with Pakistan. Pakistan has responded to India, what we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit. But we are not going to get involved in the middle they were fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it.”
He said the US is concerned about the possibility of a nuclear conflict and is working through diplomatic means to prevent escalation. “America can’t tell the Indians to lay down their arms or tell the Pakistanis to lay down their arms. And so we will continue to pursue this thing through diplomatic channels, our hope and our expectation is that this is not going to spiral into a broader regional war or God forbid, a nuclear conflict,” Vance said. He added that both nations must ensure that the situation does not turn into a wider war.
(Inputs from ANI)
