Canada provides a unique perspective to see rest of the world
and its happenings. It is the America which is not! Obviously being just north
of the USA has its pros and cons. Jury is still out to decide which is more
numerous. Guess they frequently change the top position depending on the issue
at hand and party at the helm of their respective governments.
Much as everyone dismisses Canada as the 51st
province of the US; it certainly is not. Although there are massive
similarities in the character, thoughts, beliefs, processes, systems and the
people. Sometimes a mirror image of each other, most times a reflection. There is a shared history,
shared peaceful open border as well as rather a long laundry list of
contentious disputes between the two. Both in terms of Trade as well as
politics.
From this vantage point it is obvious that despite the end of
the cold war and the sad demise of the Soviet Union it is quite not such a
unipolar world as America would have liked it. Challenges abound. Newer,
vigorous and markedly virulent threats question them regularly.
US can safely blame the duo of Henry Kissinger and Richard
Nixon for letting the China genie out of the bottle. It probably was a smart
thing to do at the time. US needed someone to lick its Vietnam wounds and China
needed someone to help loosen the Russian bear hug. One less Soviet friend
suited US as well so …. Today an eagerly expansionist Communist China is
providing the stiffest challenge; at times acting surreptitiously, suspiciously
and ominously. US currently owes China
about a trillion dollars. Some fiscal experts say it is a problem for China,
some say it is a problem for the US. However, all agree that it is a massive
problem and a huge lever.
Many moons ago US went willingly into the quagmire of
Afghanistan to stop Soviet Russia’s access to the Indian Ocean. Today it is
faced with the spectre of a communist China right on the mouth of Indian Ocean
in Gwadar Port, Baluchistan.
As if it was not enough there is that throbbing pain on the
other side of their head called North Korea. Kim may be a megalomaniac that
needs to keep up his boasts, but I really doubt if he is foolish enough to let
ballistic missiles fly over the Korean peninsula. He certainly will remain an imminent danger to
Japan and South Korea and keep threatening the US. Then there is China. Again! A
lot of Kim’s bluster and capabilities stem from the support it receives from
China. The sole major nation to do so.
It serves certain quarters to propagate the myth that Afghan’s
can’t be defeated. Anybody can be and so
can they. Their History is proof enough. It is an ancient land that has been inhabited
for thousands of years. Arabs invaded them a little more than thousand years ago.
Their entire society and ruling kingdoms capitulated. Now it is not my
proposition that they should be defeated but the false self-serving narrative
mostly touted by the Pakistani establishment needs to be countered. It essentially
is a smoke screen to hide their keystone role in keeping the pot boiling. Ironically
US paid Pakistan handsomely to execute this diabolical plan against itself!
Who other than China supports Pakistan in this endeavour? And
really guess how North Korea got its nuclear capabilities? If you guessed Pakistan;
you are right. Remember Father of the Islamic bomb; A. Q. Khan was running a
nuclear Walmart under the watchful eyes of ISI!
It is rather easy to connect these dots. There are several
other issues at hand like Saudi Arab’s penchant for promoting Wahhabism. Its rivalry
with Shia Iran and the attendant fallout in the middle east. Mexican immigrants;
Colombian drug cartel etc. Good lord! at the time of writing the whole US government
was shut down because of funding issues.
Talk about problems!
US has got aplenty. Someone the other day said that the biggest problem they
have is ‘Trump’! Now if he has seen through Pakistan’s game in Afghanistan; he
is not such a dolt! Is he now? Only thing I am confused about is that if this
is the beginning of the end; the end of the beginning or the beginning of a beginning?
