[caption id="attachment_13276" align="alignnone" width="800"] Credit: Daily Times[/caption] Despite the new regime of tariffs levied by the American administration on the import of Indian goods and the hiccups on the HB-1 visa for Indian nationals, there's no reason for Indians to agonise over these developments. Why is that actually so, has to be seen in the light of how Indians seem to have failed to learn enough about how unpredictable this (not really) new 'kid' on the block is! They would do well to look at their neighbour across the border and know why, after all, this self-aggrandising unpredictable, international policeman across the Atlantic is getting a little too close for comfort, to this corrupt, psychopathic, insane, imbecile army officer and his gang of cohorts in the army who has, by all means foul, perched himself as the chief of the army staff of that country, and as the Field Marshall to boot! The close proximity between him and Trump is that the COAS has literally put his country on sale to his “Father Sam” in return for what this he thinks would save him from the fury of the people of that country who are restive and rearing to go in revolt that is simmering right now against the COAS for his long regime of repression and persecution of people of that country. Only because they stand firmly behind his bete noire, the one- man army Imran Khan who was unceremoniously removed from power by the Pak army and who the people think - and rightly so - would help restore peace and prosperity to that country, and to the region at large. For starters, of the many reasons why his democratically elected government was dislodged by the army, one important factor that stood out as the last straw on the back of the camel was that it would not take kindly to the fiercely independent manner of governance of Imran Khan where the army was expected to go back to the barracks without throwing its weight around influencing the decisions and the workings of the government. And in an utterly unconstitutional misuse of its position, the army establishment enjoyed complete and unstinted support of the Americans who felt cheesed off by Khan's style of functioning as the head of a sovereign state which was loath to doing the dirty work of the great powers in return for their blessings and for the attendant loaves and fishes to stay in power. A natural consequence of the Pak army's coup d'etat against the IK-govt having been carried out in cahoots with the American deep state has been the ongoing bonhomie between the two that has resulted in the unprecedented proximity between the two governments that is in witness right now. In this scenario, the rogue Pak army generals and their minions, the utterly despicable merchants of venality like Shariefs and Zardaris are out to turn that country, and the region at large, into a smouldering cauldron of instability and violence that may well spill over across the border, from which there will be no escape, including of those who are watching the developments from the sidelines as they unfold in that country. Come to think of it, the fact that the Americans have unabashedly forced their hand in precipitating the present crisis in Pakistan by dislodging the ik- government is actually part of the great game involving the big power rivalry where it is sought to stop China in their tracks from emerging as countervailing force to rein in the American hegemony. And in the achievement of that goal, Imran Khan is being seen as the main stumbling block, considering the elemental fury that's raging in the country right now against the Americans, and in equal measure against the army establishment and their surrogates who have been installed in the sham of a government that has been stitched together to uneventfully showcase it as the civilian face of the government. The reason why the Americans wish to bypass the civilian government and choose to do business with the Pak army to get it on board so as to force its hand to influence the developments there is because of the image of it being a disciplined and professional army, both in the eyes of the public and of the rest of the world, that the army have carefully and assiduously crafted ever since the birth of that country almost eight decades ago. However, painting such a rosy picture of itself has not been without a price being extracted from that country in ways that are too many to reckon. An image that is sought to be cultivated for the powerful nations to exploit to advance their global agenda at the cost of the host country would necessarily entail a thoroughly unprofessional conduct on the part of the army which is already visible in the way it has monopolised the vast resources of that country and engaged itself in multiple business ventures while compromising on their bounden duty to secure its borders for peace and stability to prevail inside the borders. Their insatiable lust for political power that they have wielded in violation of their mandate, and away from the public gaze, has been unmistakable. Having savoured the political power that it has enjoyed throughout the existence of that country and that it's at pains to part with or share it, save with those who run their writ in the government who are invariably comprised of the most corrupt, compromised politicians of the country. That has been the root cause of most of the ills and of the ongoing existential crisis that's staring in the eyes of that country right now. A more recent instance of Pak army's prurient thirst for pelf and power made easier by the American indulgence towards them was on full display when, in an act of blatant violation of the constitution and the rule of law, they resorted to the most foul means by massively rigging the Feb. 2024 elections where Imran Khan's party had clearly emerged as the winner with a landslide victory, but which was denied to it while its members and supporters were abducted, arrested and persecuted in their thousands before, during and even after the elections. As if that was not bad enough, Nawaz Sharief's party which had won fewer than a total of 17 seats in the parliament was declared the winner even when, in a brazen display of military power, Sharief's henchmen who were thrashed hollow in the elections, were sworn in as ministers in the new cabinet. Apart from their miserable failure to set the currently shambolic state of the country’s economy back on the rails, a natural outcome of Pak army’s exclusive focus on how to handle the spell of Imran Khan over the masses across all the provinces of Pakistan has been its spectacular failure to curb insurgency in Balochistan which is now raging as never before, never mind their poor track record in setting their own house in order in terms of security of the people of their country that they have wilfully pushed to the precipice following the coup against the IK-led government in 2022. The recent Saudi-Pakistan defence deal that was signed between the two countries some days ago may be seen as a desperate bid by the Pak army to refurbish its image as a professional body that is sought to have the capacity and the wherewithal to extend the security cover to other countries in the region. This raises the question as to how upon earth would one hope a country like Pakistan to provide security cover to the Saudi monarchy in a situation when Saudi finds itself under external threat! On their part, however, the Saudi monarchy has nothing to boast of in terms of its military might that it could offer to bail out Pakistan, should the latter come under attack from an adversary. The plea that a country that has pledged defence support to the KSA in the event of a possible US-sponsored strike on its soil or its skies as had recently happened in Doha does not wash either as it would draw sniggers from the US without whose nod, however, neither the prime minister nor the army chief of that country would hope to occupy that position even for a minute. That is a sad commentary, not only on how that country is being run and manipulated by the powerful nations of the world, - courtesy the rogue army of that country  - but on the international policeman as well who has little regard for democratic principles when it comes to their tested tool of regime change in other countries where democratically elected  governments are dislodged with impunity at their behest and their surrogates put in positions of power to toe their line in pursuit of their agenda as a global hegemon. However, there is more to the Pak-Saudi defence deal than meets the eye, considering that  the deal is primarily designed to serve the greater designs of the US and Israel more than either of the two signatories who stand to lose in this US - choregraphed drama. If anything, while the primary objective of the deal is to secure the participation of Pakistan in using the latter’s influence in putting paid to the fast advancing footprint of China in the region through the CPEC (China-Pakistan economic corridor)  that goes through the Gawadar port of Pakistan that China would use to get access to the oil wells of the Gulf states, it’s also intended to get Pakistan to accede to the Abraham accord which, among things, entails the signatories to the deal grant recognition to the state of Israel. Other than that, the defence deal between the two countries bids fair to be no more than a damp squib and far away from what it is being made out to be- a game changer in the region! Yes, the defence deal may well serve the optics involving the show of solidarity between the two countries, even as in reality, it is no more than what promises to be a big boon to the American-Israel nexus of evil in pursuit of their regional-global aspirations.