The theatrics of the July 31 airstrike in Kabul momentarily
at least distracted attention from the miserable picture Biden drew for himself
as a weak, ineffectual POTUS (The President of the United States.
Eleven days after the US President Joe Biden’s
dramatic announcement of August 01 regarding the killing of Ayman
al-Zawahiri, Moscow has broken its silence. Ten days back, Russian Foreign
Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova had replied to a query that Moscow was
yet to get the details on what had happened on July 31.
Revisiting the topic during yesterday’s MFA press
briefing, in response to a follow-up question, the deputy spokesperson Ivan
Nechayev has stated, “We do not undertake to confirm the authenticity about the
destruction in Kabul on July 31 this year as a result of a drone strike of the
leader of Zawahiri.”
No doubt, this is a very carefully worded Russian statement
that focuses on the reliability of Biden’s version. Indeed, Biden got away
scot-free since he made the announcement from the White House without taking
any questions from the media.
Nechayev pointed out, “Washington has not provided the
public with any evidence of the elimination of this terrorist.” And he merely
took note of media reports that the apartment building hit by the Americans in
Kabul belonged to the “Haqqani clan”.
However, Nechayev offered that the first conclusions can be
drawn on the basis of the official comments of the authorities in Kabul — they
have no information about Zawahiri’s stay in the Afghan capital.
Russia has traditionally kept a robust intelligence system
working on Afghanistan providing real time inputs to Moscow, including during
the Taliban rule from 1996-2001, when the Russian embassy and consulates
remained closed.
In fact, Russian sources were far ahead of others in sharing
the details of former Ashraf Ghani’s hasty evacuation from Kabul on August 15
last year amidst the chaotic arrival of the Taliban in the city.
Ghani apparently chose to keep even his hand-picked
vice-president and super spy Amrullah Saleh in the dark that he was fleeing
with his wife and then national security advisor Hamdullah Mohib.
Therefore, it is a reasonable surmise that Nechayev probably
spoke on what security experts would call a need-to-know basis. That makes his
remarks doubting the authenticity of Biden’s remarks truly astounding. It is as
good as saying that Moscow has received conflicting reports.
However, Nechayev plunged the knife deep and raised some
very pertinent questions in this strange case of a murder without evidence. He
commented, “Such aggressive actions of the US Air Force, which invaded the
sovereign territory of Afghanistan, raise a number of serious questions.
Nechayev posed two questions, 1) who provided the airspace for
the airstrike on Kabul? 2) Who will be responsible in case of collateral
civilian casualties during such actions?
Afghanistan shares
borders with six countries namely Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
China and Pakistan.
It is a safe bet
that Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and China wouldn’t have got involved in
such a murderous act by the Americans in violation of international law and UN
Charter.
As for Tajikistan,
its airspace is under Russian control
That makes Pakistan
the only plausible culprit
Biden
Administration refuses to provide evidence for fear it might put Rawalpindi in
a tight spot at a time when the incumbent army chief is a strategic asset for
Washington.
There are no easy answers. All we know is that the present
Army Chief General Bajwa is known to take a hands-on role in all major issues
and most minor issues in Pakistan-US relations.
He even reached out to Wendy Sherman, the US Deputy
Secretary of State, with a request seeking her intervention with the
IMF to release the pending tranche of financial bailout for Pakistan.
Significantly, Nechayev alluded to attempts to use a real
threat to cover up US geopolitical ambitions.
He concluded, “Washington, judging by this incident, prefers
to act as it pleases, following strictly in line with its foreign policy
benefits, regardless of international law and the national sovereignty of other
states.”
What
could be the foreign policy benefits here?
There
are three ways to look at the question.
First
and foremost, Biden burnishes his image as a decisive leader when his
incoherent public behavior on numerous occasions lately came to be widely
noticed within the US and abroad.
Indeed, Biden’s August 01 remarks were peppered with large
dollops of self-praise taking credit for the decapitation of the dreaded
al-Qaeda. He projected himself as a “hands-on” president.
Second,
the US has created a precedent by this act of July 31 — underscoring its
prerogative to act as it chooses on Afghanistan.
Simply put, the Rubicon has been crossed and the US military
might has returned to Afghanistan, now that Washington claims that
al-Qaeda is very much active in Afghanistan.
Of course, it is a humiliating blow for the Taliban whose
two-decade long resistance was all about regaining Afghanistan’s sovereignty.
Furthermore, the door has been firmly shut on any US-Taliban
engagement for a foreseeable future, now that Washington doesn’t have to look
beyond that to allege a continuing Taliban-al Qaeda nexus.
Logically,
the US can even justify joining hands henceforth with the UK and France to
extend support to the Panjshiris’ armed rebellion against Taliban.
Taliban faces a pincer move from Pakistani military and the
Biden Administration at a time when, ironically, its best supporter, Imran
Khan, is also being defanged systematically in a nutcracker by the civilian
government in Islamabad and the so-called powers that be.
Of course, keeping Afghanistan in turmoil would serve the US
and Nato interests at the present juncture when Russia, the provider of
security for Central Asia, is preoccupied with the Ukraine conflict, and China
is brooding over Taiwan’s reunification.
Third,
the timing, Biden struck when only about 24 hours were left for House Speaker
Nancy policy’s plane to descend on Taipei.
The fiction that Washington propagated to the effect that
the Administration had no control over the Speaker had, ironically,
boomeranged, casting Biden in a poor light as a commander-in-chief who could
not even order a military plane to change direction.
Suffice to say, the theatrics of the July 31 airstrike in
Kabul momentarily at least distracted attention from the miserable picture
Biden drew for himself as a weak, ineffectual POTUS.
All in all, this indeed becomes a perfect murder, worthy of
being a sequel to the Michael Douglas-Gwyneth Paltrow crime thriller on a
murder that left no clue to trace the perpetrators. By the way, the pleasurable
1998 film also had two alternate endings. The viewer was at liberty to choose
which version was found more agreeable.
Courtesy: South Asia Journal
