‘Asim Munir is Osama bin Laden in a suit’: Ex-Pentagon official says a bad peace deal can actually advance war

No amount of concession given to Pakistan would change their ideology, and just how SEAL teams entered Pakistan to take out Osama bin Laden, other SEAL teams should enter Pakistan to secure its nuclear weapons, said former Pentagon official Michael Rubin. “Asim Munir is Osama bin Laden in a suit. The fact of the matter is there will be no amount of concession that will be given to Pakistan that is going to change the ideology of Asim Munir or the Pakistani elite he represents,” said Rubin. 

“Pakistan is playing a very dangerous game. The fact that Pakistan is threatening half of the world with nuclear weapons is a clear indication that it has lost its right to be a legitimate state on the international stage,” he said. Rubin was referring to Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir speech threatening nuclear attack from the soil of a third friendly country – the USA. In a rather incendiary speech from California, Munir said, “We are a nuclear nation; if we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us.” He also threatened to attack Indian infrastructure as well as Mukesh Ambani. 

India, in a sharp rebuttal, called out Islamabad’s “nuclear sabre-rattling”. The Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement, "The international community can draw its own conclusions on the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks, which also reinforce the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups." 

Rubin, referring to the entire incident, said, “It is time for the US – if not Donald Trump than future administrations – to consider other policies. Would the region be more stable, for instance, if the US recognised Balochistan or if Pakistan was allowed to collapse. If we do not manage its decline, then Asim Munir is right, it could cause a nuclear war. What we should realise from Munir’s comments is that Pakistan is collapsing and it needs to have international intervention for a managed decline. Just as SEAL teams entered Pakistan to take out Osama bin Laden, it is coming near times when during the future administrations, other SEAL teams should enter Pakistan to secure its nuclear weapons because the alternative is simply too great to bear."

The ex-Pentagon official also called out Donald Trump’s efforts at “peacemaking”. He said Trump is a businessman and a real estate mogul who is used to horse trading. “Morality does not come into play, ideology does not come into play,” said Rubin.

Donald Trump just wants the signature on a sheet of paper and does not care about the quality of peace, he said. “He does not understand that a bad peace deal can actually advance war. This is Donald Trump’s fundamental mistake. The other problem is that he very much has the ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He looks at this that will show the world that he is better than Obama, he is better than Jimmy Carter, he is better than Bill Clinton. He really is a man with very little self confidence. And what the Pakistanis, the Israelis and now many others have done is that they have played to his ego and convinced him that he truly deserves this. Unfortunately, India will pay the price as he puts his efforts into overdrive.” 

Rubin added that Americans look at terrorism through the “lens of grievance” and believe it can be addressed through a diplomatic formula. “They don’t understand the ideological underpinnings of many terrorists,” he said.