US right-wing scholars make out case for military intervention in Pakistan

Frederick Kagan and Michael O’Hanlon, scholars associated with two think tanks promoting conservative ideas, have raised the issue of possible US military intervention in Pakistan.

Kagan is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. O’Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

In an Op-Ed article, published by the New York Times on November 18, under the heading “Pakistan’s Collapse, Our problem”, they argue that the US cannot stand by as a nuclear-armed Pakistan descends into the abyss. They indicate two possible courses of action. One is a Special Forces operation with the limited objective of preventing Pakistan’s nuclear weapons falling into wrong hands. The other is a broader option involving support to the Pakistan army to hold the country together.

Commenting on the Kagan-O’Hanlon thesis, Pakistan affairs commentator Abid Ullah Jan says: “In the plans of American warlords, the time for Pakistan is up.”

Abid Ullah Jan, who is the author of “The Musharraf Factor: Leading Pakistan to its Inevitable Demise”, writing in Countercurrents.org, calls upon Pakistan’s religious, military and political leaders to take a note of the impending war on Pakistan and make the necessary course corrections.