By Zahid Ahmad Khan, "The Undeclared War Against Pakistan," [Islamabad, The Muslim in English, 11 Aug 91, p. 7]

After the demise of communism in the USSR and its East European satellite states, the United States has embarked upon an unprecedented spree of adventurism to control the entire world with its macho display. Emboldened by the military defeat of Iraq, a sinister effort is underway to give the same treatment to those states, particularly the Muslim ones, which refuse to knuckle under to the high and the mighty. Nobody knows exactly which the next Muslim State would be to feel the heat from the United States. But indications are there, suggesting that Pakistan may be the next country at the receiving end.

Some of the very important leaders of Pakistan alluded to this possibility during the Gulf war. Our COAS [Chief of Army Staff] General Mirza Aslam Beg, even though heading the army of one of the allied countries, could not help himself from giving vent to his genuine apprehensions about real intentions of the United States vis-a-vis the Middle East.

In fact, he was the only important military man in the Muslim allied countries who came out very boldly against the real face of the Western alliance spearheaded by the United States. Very few people were willing to take that warning seriously. Some politicians contrarily took it as yet another sign of dichotomy between the army and the civil government over the Gulf policy.

Now that the veracity of that warning has become clear, Pakistan's military and economic aid has been stopped. It is the turn of Pakistan to bear the brunt of the yet another offensive to allow the 'new world order' to see the light of day.

Pakistan is the only country of the region after Iraq which is in a position to stand on its feet, much to the dismay of the naked imperialism of the United States. As such, it is the only impediment in the way of Pax-Americana in South Asia, in different capacities. There has been an increasing amount of propensity on the part of Pakistan to act independently on at least those matters of national importance where the stakes are too high. Pakistan and the United States no longer see eye to eye on the Afghan problem. And in the Gulf War, our participation was in fact only technical. Of all the Muslim countries which rallied under the United States to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait, it was (and still is) Pakistan which remained opposed to the modus operandi of the entire operation that saw the destruction of Iraqi military might. To cap it all, Pakistan's principled stand on its independent nuclear program is further cleaving it apart from the United States. We are, therefore, no longer the dependable allies of the United States.